THE
YOGA-VÁSISHTHA
MAHÁRÁMÁYANA.
OF
VÁLMÍKI

Ráma rejoined:—The renunciation of the notion of one’s personality or egoism in his own person, being attended by its attendant evil of inertness and inactivity (lit. want of acts), it naturally brings on a premature decay and decline, and the eventual falling off of the body in a short time: how then is it possible sir, for an indifferent person of this kind, to practice his actions and discharge the active duties of life (as you preached in your last lecture)?

2. Vasishtha replied:—It is possible Ráma, for the living person to resign his false ideas and not for one that is dead and gone (because the life of a man is independent of his notions; while the notions are dependant on his life). Hear me now to expound this truth, and it will greatly please your ears: (lit. it will be an ornament to your ears).

3. The idea of one’s egoism (or his personality in own person), is said to be an idealism by idealists; but it is the conception of the signification of the word air or vacuity (which is the essence of the Deity), that is represented as the repudiation of that erroneous notion.

24. The idealists represent the sense of all substances, as a creation of the imagination, while it is the idea of a pure vacuum, which they say to be the resignation of this erroneous conception. (The vacuistic Vasishtha treats here in length of the nullity of all substances, and the eternity of all pervading vacuum, and establishes the doctrine of the nothingness of the world and its God).

5. The idea of any thing in the world as something in reality, is said to be mere imaginary by the best and wisest of men; but the belief of all things as an empty nothing, displaces the error of thought from the mind. Since all things are reduced to and return to nothing, it is this alone which is the ever lasting something. (Ullum est nullum, et nullum est ullum).

6. Know thy remembrance of anything, is thy imagination of it only, and its forgetfulness alone is good for thee; therefore try to blot out all thy former impressions from thy mind, as if they were never impressed on it.

7. Efface from thy mind the memory of all thou hast felt or unfelt (i.e. fancied), and remain silent and secluded like a block after thy forgetfulness of all things whatsoever.

8. Continue in the practice of thy continuous actions, with an utter oblivion of the past (nor need the assistance of thy memory of the past, in the discharge of thy present duties); because thy habit of activity is enough to conduct thee through all the actions of thy life, as it is the habit of a half-sleeping baby to move its limbs (without its consciousness of the movements). (Such is the force of habit, says the maxim Abhyastopapatti—habit is second nature).

9. It requires no design or desire on the part of an actor to act his part, whereto he is led by the tenor of his prior propensities (of past lives); as a potter’s wheel is propelled by the pristine momentum, without requiring the application of continued force for its whirling motion. So O sinless Ráma! mind our actions to be under the direction of our previous impressions, and not under the exertion of our present efforts.

10. Hence inappetency has become the congenial tendency of your mind, without its inclination to the gratification of its 3appetites. The leanings of men to particular pursuits, are directed by the current of their previous propensities. The predisposition of the mind, is said to be the cause of the formation of the character and fortune of a man in his present state, (which is otherwise said to be the result of his predestination) which runs as a stream in wonted course, and carries all men as straws floating along with its tide.

11. I am proclaiming it with a loud voice and lifted arms, and yet no body will hearken unto me when I say that, want of desire is our supreme bliss and summum bonum, and yet why is it that none would perceive it as such?

12. O the wondrous power of illusion! that it makes men to slight their reason, and throw away the richest jewel of their mind, from the chest of their breast wherein it is deposited.

13. The best way to inappetence, is the ignoring and abnegation of the phenomenals which I want you to do; and know that your disavowal of all is of the greatest boon to you, as you will be best able to perceive in yourself.

14. Sitting silent with calm content, will lead you to that blissful state, before which your possession of an empire will seem insignificant, and rather serving to increase your desire for more. (The adage says:—No one has got over the ocean of his ambition, neither an Alexander nor a Cæsar).

15. As the feet of a traveller are in continued motion, until he reaches to his destination; so are the body and mind of the avaricious in continual agitation, unless his inappetence would give him respite from his incessant action.

16. Forget and forsake your expectation of fruition of the result of your actions, and allow yourself to be carried onward by the current of your fortune, and without taking anything to thy mind; as a sleeping man is insensibly carried on by his dreams.

17. Stir yourself to action as it occurs to you, and without any purpose or desire of yours in it, and without your feeling any pain or pleasure therein; let the current of the business conduct you onward, as the current of a stream carries down a straw in its course.

418. Take to thy heart no pleasure or pain, in the discharge of the work in which thou art employed; but remain insensible of both like a wooden machine which works for others. (Because, says the commentary, it is the dull head of people only, that are elated or dejected in the good or bad turns of the affairs of life).

19. Remain insensible of pleasure or pain, in thy body and mind and all the organs of senses; like the sapless trees and plants in winter, when they bear their bare trunks without the sensitiveness of their parts.

20. Let the sun of thy good understanding, suck up the sensibility of thy six external senses, as the solar rays dry up the moisture of winter plants; and continue to work with the members of thy body, as an engine is set to work. (Work as a brute with thy bodily powers or as a machine with its mechanical forces; but keep thy inner mind aloof from thy outer drudgeries).

21. Restrain thy intellectual pleasures from their inclination to sensual gratifications, and retain thy spiritual joy in thyself, for the support of thy life; as the ground retains the roots of trees in it very carefully in winter for their growth in the season of spring.

22. It is the same whether you continually gratify or not the cravings of your senses, they will continue insatiate notwithstanding all your supplies, and the vanities of the world will profit you nothing.

23. If you move about continually like a running stream, or as the continuous shaking of the water in an aerostatic or hydraulic engine, and be free from every desire and craving of your mind, you are then said to advance towards your endless felicity (so the adage is:—All desire is painsome, and its want is perfect freedom).

24. Know this as a transcendent truth, and capable of preventing all your future transmigrations in this world, that you become accustomed to the free agency of all your actions, without being dragged to them by your desires.

25. Pursue your business as it occurs to you, without any 5desire or purpose of your own towards its object; but continue to turn about your callings, as the potter’s wheel revolves round its fulcrum.

26. Neither have in view the object of your action, nor the reward of your action; but know it to be equally alike whether you refrain from action, or do it without your desire of fruition.

27. But what is the use of much verbiology, when it can be expressed in short and in a few words, that the desire of fruition is the bondage of your soul, and your relinquishment of it is fraught with your perfect freedom.

28. There is no business whatever for us in this world, that must be done or abandoned by us at any time or place; every thing is good that comes from the good God, therefore sit you quiet with your cold indifference as before the occurrence of any event.

29. Think thy works as no works, and take thy abstinence from action for thy greatest work, but remain as quiet in your mind in both your action and inaction, as the Divine Intellect is in ecstasies amidst the thick of its action.

30. Know the unconsciousness of all things to be the true trance-yoga, and requiring the entire suppression of the mental operations. Remain wholly intent on the Supreme spirit, until thou art one and the same with it.

31. Being identified with that tranquil and subtile spirit, and divested of the sense of dualism or existence of anything else; nobody can sorrow for ought, when he is himself absorbed in his thought, in the endless and pure essence of God.

32. Let no desire rise in thy indifferent mind, like a tender germ sprouting in the sterile desert soil; nor allow a wish to grow in thee, like a slender blade shooting in the bosom of a barren rock.

33. The unconscious and insensible saint, derives no good or evil by his doing or undoing of any deed or duty in his living state, nor in his next life. (Duties are not binding on the holy and devout sages and saints).

34. There is no sense of duty nor that of its dereliction neither, in the minds of the saintly Yogis, who always view the 6equality of all things and acts; and never consider their deeds as their own doings, nor think themselves as the agents of their own actions.

35. The consciousness of egoism and the sense of meiety of selfishness, will never release a man from the miseries of life; it is his unconsciousness of these, that can only save him from all sorrow, wherefore it lies in the option of every body, to choose for him either of these as he may best like.

36. There is no other ego or meiety excepting that of the one self-existent and omniform Deity; and besides the essence of this transcendent being, it is hard to account anything of the multifarious things that appear to be otherwise than Himself.

37. The visible world that appears so vividly to our sight, is no more than the manifestation of the One Divine Essence in many, like the transformation of gold in the multiform shapes of jewels; but seeing the continual decay and disappearance of the phenomenals, we ignore their separate existence. We confess the sole existence of the One that lasts after all and for ever.

Vasishtha continued:—Think not of unity or duality, but remain quite calm and quiet in thy spirit and as cold hearted as the dank mud and mire, as the worlds are still with unstirry spirit of the divinity working in them. (This is a lesson of incessant work without any stir and bustle).

2. The mind with its understanding and egoism and all its thoughts, are full of the divine spirit in its diversified forms (vivarta-rúpa); and time and its motion and all sound, force and action, together with all modes of existence, are but manifestations of the Divine Essence.

3. The Divine Spirit, being of the form of gelatinous mud (or plastic nature), all things with their forms and colours, and the mind and all its functions also, upon its own mould of endless shapes and types beyond the comprehension of men.

4. It is the Divine Essence which forms its own substance as upon a mould of clay, the patterns and forms and the shapes of all things, together with the measurements of space and time and the position of all the quarters and regions of the earth and heavens; so all things existent or inexistent, are the produce and privation of the formative mud and mould of the Divine Spirit.

5. Do you remain indifferent about the essence of your egoism and selfishness, which is no other than that of the Supreme Spirit; and live unconcerned with everything, like a dumb insect in the bosom of stone. (This is the Vajra-Kita, which perforates the sálagram stone in the river Gandak in Bihar). (The dumbness of silent munis was occasioned by their 8inability to speak with certainty anything regarding the abstruse spiritual subjects).

6. Ráma asked:—Sir, if the false knowledge of egoism and selfishness, be wanting in the wise and God knowing man, then how comes it, that the dereliction and renunciation of his duties, will entail any guilt or evil upon him, and his full observance of them, is attended with any degree of merit or reward? (This is the main question of the necessity of the observance of duteous and pious acts by the wise, which is after so long mooted by Ráma, in continuation of the last subject under discussion).

7. Vasishtha replied:—I will ask you also one question, O sinless Ráma! and you should answer it soon, if you understand well what is rightly meant by the term duty and that of activity.

8. Tell me what is the root of action and how far it extends, and whether it is destructible at last or not, and how it is totally destroyed at the end.

9. Ráma replied:—Why sir, whatever is destructible must come to be destroyed at last, by means of the act of rooting it out at once, and not by the process of lopping the branches or cutting off the tree.

10. The acts of merit and demerit are both to be destroyed, together with their results of good and evil; and this is done by eradicating and extirpating them altogether.

11. Hear me tell you, sir, about the roots of our deeds, by the rooting out of which the trees of our actions are wholly extirpated, and are never to vegetate or grow forth any more.

12. I ween sir, the body of ours to be the tree of our action, and has grown out in the great garden of this world, and is girt with twining creepers of various kinds. (i.e. The members of the body).

13. Our past acts are the seeds of this tree, and our weal and woe are the fruits with which it is fraught; it is verdant with the verdure of youth for a while, and it smiles with its white blossoms of the grey hairs and the pale complexion of old age.

914. Destructive death lurks about this tree of the body every moment, as the light-legged monkey lights upon trees to break them down; it is engulphed in the womb of sleep, as the tree is overwhelmed under the mists of winter, and the flitting dreams are as the falling leaves of trees.

15. Old age is the autumn of life, and the decaying wishes are as the withered leaves of trees, and the wife and members of the family, are as thick as grass in the wilderness of the world.

16. The ruddy palms and soles of the hands and feet, and the other reddish parts of the body (as the tongue and lips), resemble the reddening leaves of this tree; which are continually moving in the air, with the marks of slender lines upon them.

17. The little reddish fingers with their flesh and bones, and covered by the thin skin and moving in the air, are as the tender shoots of the tree of the human body.

18. The soft and shining nails, which are set in rows with their rounded forms and sharpened ends, are like the moon-bright buds of flowers with their painted heads.

19. This tree of the body is the growth of the ripened seed of the past acts of men; and the organs of action are the knotty and crooked roots of this tree.

20. These organs of action are supported by the bony members of the body, and nourished by the sap of human food; they are fostered by our desires, resembling the pith and blood of the body.

21. Again the organs of sense supply those of action with their power of movement, or else the body with the lightness of all its members from head to foot, would not be actuated to action without the sensation of their motion. (Hence a dead or sleeping man having no sensation in him, has not the use or action of his limbs).

22. Though the five organs of sense, grow apart and at great distances from one another, like so many branches of this tree of the body; they are yet actuated by the desire of the heart, which supplies them with their sap.

1023. The mind is the great trunk of this tree, which comprehends the three worlds in it, and is swollen with the sap which it derives from them through its five fold organs of sense; as the stem of a tree thrive with the juice it draws by the cellular fibres of its roots.

24. The living soul is the root of the mind, and having the intellect ingrained, it is always busy with its thoughts, which have the same intellect for their root; but the root of all these is the One Great Cause of all.

25. The intellect has the great Brahma, which has no cause of itself; and which having no designation or termination of it, is truth from the purity of its essence.

26. The consciousness of ourselves in our egoism, is the root of all our actions; and the internal thought of our personal entity is the root of our energy, and gives the impulse to all our actions. (Therefore as long as one has the knowledge of his personality, he is prone to action, and without it, every body is utterly inert).

27. It is our percipience, O Sage, which is said to be the source and root of our actions and whenever there is this principle in the mind, it causes the body to grow in the form of the big Sirsapatra. (It is the intellect which is both the living soul as well as its percipience).

28. When this percipience otherwise called consciousness (of the soul), is accompanied with the thoughts (of egoism and personality in the mind), it becomes the seed of action; otherwise mere consciousness of the self is the state of the supreme soul.

29. So also when the intellect is accompanied with its power of intellection, it becomes the source and seed of action; or else it is as calm and quiet as it is the nature of the Supreme soul. (The self-perception and pure intelligence, are attributes of the Divine soul, and not productive of action; but these in company with the operations of the mind, become the causes of the activity of both).

30. Therefore the knowledge of one’s personality in his own person, is the cause of his action, and this causality of action, as 11I have said herein, is quite in conformity with your teachings to me.

31. Vasishtha said:—Thus Ráma, action in the discreet being based on the knowledge of one’s personality; it is no way possible to avoid our activity, as long as the mind is situated in the body, and has the knowledge of its personality.

32. Whoever thinks of anything, sees the same both within as well as without himself; and whether it is in reality or not, yet the mind is possessed with chimera of it.

33. Again whoever thinks of nothing, verily escapes from the error of mistaking a chimera for reality; but whether the reality is a falsity, or the falsity of anything is a sober reality, is what we are not going to discuss about at present.

34. It is this thinking principle, which presents the shadow of something within us, and passes under the various designations of will or desire, the mind and its purpose likewise.

35. The mind resides in the bodies of both rational as well as irrational beings, and in both their waking and sleeping states; it is impossible therefore, to get rid of it by any body at any time.

36. It is neither the silence nor inactivity of a living body, that amounts to its refraining from action, so long as the mind is busy with its thoughts; but it is only the unmindfulness of the signification of the word action, that amounts to one’s forbearance from acts.

37. It is the freedom of one’s volition or choice either to do or not to do anything that is meant to make one’s action or otherwise; therefore by avoiding your option in the doing of an act you avoid it altogether; otherwise there is no other means of avoiding the responsibility of the agent for his own acts; (except that they were done under the sense of compulsion and not of free choice. Gloss).

38. Nobody is deemed as the doer of an act, who does not do it by his deliberate choice; and the knowledge of the unreality of the world, leads to the ignoring of all action also. (If nothing is real, then our actions are unreal also).

39. The ignoring of the existence of the world, is what 12makes the renunciation of it; and the renunciation of all associations and connections, is tantamount to one’s liberation from them. The knowledge of the knowable One, comprehends in it the knowledge of all that is to be known. (Because the One is all, and all existence is comprised in that only knowable One).

40. There being no such thing as production, there is no knowledge of anything whatever that is produced; abandon therefore your eagerness to know the knowable forms (of things), and have the knowledge of the only invisible One.

41. But there is no knowing whatever of the nature and actions of the quiescent spirit of Brahma, its action is its intellection only, which evolves itself in the form of an infinite vacuum (showing the shapes of all things as in a mirror).

42. “That utter insensibility is liberation,” is well known to the learned as the teaching of the Veda; hence no one is exempted from action, as long as he lives with his sensible body.

43. Those who regard action as their duty, are never released from their subjection to the root (principle) of action; and this root is the consciousness of the concupiscent mind of its own actions. (The desire is the motive of actions, and the consciousness of one’s deeds and doings, is the bondage of the soul. Or else a workingman is liberated, provided he is devoid of desire and unmindful of his actions).

44. It is impossible, O Ráma, to destroy this bodiless consciousness, without the weapon of a good understanding; it lies so very deep in the mind, that it continually nourishes the roots of action.

45. When by our great effort, we can nourish the seed of conscience, why then we should not be able to destroy the keen conscience by the same weapon that is effort.

46. In the same manner, we can destroy also the tree of the world with its roots and branches.

47. That One is only existent, which has no sensation and is no other than of the form of an endless vacuum; it is that unintelligible vacuous form and pure intelligence itself, which is the pith and substance of all existence.

Ráma said:—Tell me, O Sage, how it may be possible to convert our knowledge to ignorance, since it is impossible to make a nothing of something, as also to make anything out of a nothing.

2. Vasishtha replied:—Verily a nothing or unreality, cannot be something in reality; nor a real something can become an unreal nothing; but in any case where both of these (viz.; reality as well as unreality of a thing) are possible, there the cognition and incognition of something, are both of them equally palpable of themselves. (This is termed a Chátushkotika Sunsaya or quadruplicate apprehension of something, consisting, of the reality or unreality of a thing, and the certainty or uncertainty of its knowledge).

3. The two senses of the word knowledge (i.e. its affirmative and negative senses) are apparent in the instance of “a rope appearing as a snake”: here the knowledge of the rope is certain, but that of the snake is a mistake or error. And so in the case of a mirage presenting the appearance of water. (Here the things snake and water prove to be nothing, and their knowledge as such, is converted to error or want of knowledge).

4. It is better therefore to have no knowledge of these false appearances, whose knowledge tends to our misery only; wherefore know the true reality alone, and never think of the unreal appearance. (Do not think the visibles either as real or unreal, but know the deathless spirit that lies hid under them).

5. The conception of the sense of sensible perceptions, is the cause of woe of all living beings; therefore it is better to root out the sense of the perceptibles from the mind, and rely 14in the knowledge of the underlying universal soul only. (Taking the particulars in the sense of individual souls, is the cause of misery only).

6. Leaving aside the knowledge of parts, and the sense of your perception of all sensible objects, know the whole as one infinite soul, in which you have your rest and nirvána extinction.

7. Destroy all your acts of merit and demerit, by the force of your discrimination; and your knowledge of the evanescence of your deeds, aided by your knowledge of truth, will cause the consummation of Yoga (Siddhi).

8. By rooting out the reminiscence of your acts, you put a stop to their results and your course in the world; and if you succeed to gain the object of your search (i.e. your spiritual knowledge), by means of your reason, you have no more any need of your action.

9. The divine intellect, like the Bel fruit, forms within itself its pith and seeds (of future worlds), which lie hid in it, and never burst out of its bosom. (So all things are contained in divine mind).

10. As a thing contained in its container, is not separate from the containing receptacle, so all things that lie in the womb of space, are included in the infinite space of the universal soul (or the divine mind) which encompasses the endless vacuity in it.

11. And as the property of fluidity, is never distinct from the nature of liquids; so the thoughts (of all created things), are never apart from the thinking principle of the Divine mind. (The words Chittam and Chittwam, and their meanings of the thought and mind, appertain to their common root the chit or intellect with which they are alike in sound and sense).

12. Again as fluidity is the inseparable property of water, and light is that of fire; so the thoughts and thinking, inhere intrinsically in the nature of the Divine Intellect, and not as its separable qualities.

13. Intellection is the action of the intellect, and its privation gives rise to the chimeras of error in the mind; 15there is no other cause of error, nor does it last unless it rises in absence of reason.

14. Intellection is the action of the intellect, as fluctuation is that of the wind; and it is by means of their respective actions, that we have our perceptions of them. But when the soul ceases from action, then both of these (viz: our intellection and perceptions) are at an utter stop within and without us. (i.e. The soul is the prime mover of our inward and outward senses).

15. The body is the field and scope of our actions, and our egoism spreads itself over the world; but our insensibility and want of egoism, tend to put away the world from us as want of force puts down the breeze.

16. Insensibility of the body and mind, renders the intelligent soul, as dull as a stone; therefore root out the world from thy mind, as a boar uproots a plant with its tusk; (by means of your insensibility of it, and the full sense of God alone in thee).

17. In this way only, O Ráma, you can get rid of the seed vessel of action in your mind; and there is no other means of enjoying the lasting peace of your soul besides this.

18. After the germinating seed of action is removed from the mind, the wise man loses the sight of all temporal objects, in his full view of the holy light of God.

19. The holy saints never seek to have, nor dare to avoid or leave any employment of their own choice or will; (but they do whatever comes in their way, knowing it as the will of God and must be done). They are therefore said to be of truly saintly souls and minds, who are strangers to the preference or rejection of anything (lit., to the acceptance or avoidance of a thing).

20. Wise men sit silent where they sit and live as they live, with their hearts and minds as vacant as the vacuous sky; they take what they get, and do what is destined to them as they are unconscious of doing them. (The vacant mind without any care or thought, is like a clear mirror <of> the untainted seat of the Holy God).

1621. As sediments are swept away by the current of the stream, so the saintly and meek minded men are moved to action by a power not their own; they act with their organs of action with as much unconcern, as babes have the movements of their bodies, in their half-sleeping state.

22. As the sweetest things appear unsavoury to those that are satiate and sated with them; so do the delights of the world, seem disgusting to them, that are delighted with divine joy in themselves; and with which they are so enrapt in their rapture, as to become unconscious of what is passing in and about them like insane people.

23. The unconsciousness of one’s acts, makes the abandonment of his action, and this is perfected when a person is in full possession of his understanding (or else the unconsciousness of a dead man of his former acts, does not amount to his abandonment of action). It matters not whether a man does ought or naught, with his unsubstantial or insensible organs of action. (It is external consciousness that makes the action, and not the external doing of it, with the insensible organs of the body; because the mental impressions make the action and not its forgetfulness in the mind).

24. An action done without a desire, is an act of unconsciousness; and they are not recognized as our actions, which have no traces of them in our minds. (Hence all involuntary acts and those of insanity, are reckoned as no doings of their doer).

25. An act which is not remembered, and which is forgotten as if it were buried in oblivion, is as no act of its doer; and this oblivion is equal to the abandonment of action.

26. He who pretends to have abandoned all action, without abandoning (or effacing) them from his mind, is said to be a hypocrite, and is devoured by the monster of his hypocrisy: (of this nature are the false fakirs, who pretend to have renounced the world).

27. They who have rooted out the prejudice of actions from their lives, and betaken themselves to the rest and refuge 17of inaction, are freed from the expectation of reward of whatever they do, as also from the fear of any evil for what they avoid to perform.

28. They who have extirpated the seeds of action, with their roots and germs, from the ground of their minds, have always an undisturbed tranquility to rest upon, and which is attended with a serene delight to those that have made hebetude their habit.

29. The meek are slightly moved in their bodies and minds, by the current of business in which they have fallen; but the reckless are carried onward whirling in the torrent, like drunken sots reclining on the ground, or as anything moved by a machine, (or as the machines of an engine).

30. Those who are seated in any stage of yoga, and are graced with the calmness of liberation, appear as cheerful as men in a play house, who are half asleep and half-awake over the act in this great theatre of the world.

31. That is said to be wholly extirpated, which is drawn out by its roots, or else it is like the destroying of a tree by lopping its branches which will grow again, unless it is uprooted from the ground.

32. So the tree of acts (the ceremonial code), though lopped off of its branches (of particular rites and ceremonies), will thrive again if it is left to remain, without uprooting it by the ritual (of acháras).

33. It is enough for your abandonment of acts, to remain unconscious of your performance of them; and the other recipes for the same (as given before) will come to you of themselves.

34. Whoever adopts any other method of getting rid of his actions, besides those prescribed herein; his attempts of their abandonment are as null and void, as his striking the air, (in order to divide it). (Out ward abandonment of anything is nothing, unless it is done so from the mind).

35. It is the rational abandonment of a thing, that makes its true relinquishment, and whatever is done unwilfully, is like 18a fried grain or seed, that never vegetates nor brings forth its fruit. (The rational renouncement of a thing, is said in the Veda, to mean its resignation to God, to whom belongs every thing in the world, and is lent to man for his temporary use only. And fruitless actions are those that are done unwillingly, and are not productive of future births for our misery only).

36. But the act that is done with the will and bodily exertion, becomes productive with the moisture of desire; but all other efforts of the body without the will, are entirely fruitless to their actor.

37. After one has got rid of his action, and freed himself from further desire; he becomes liberated for life (Jívan-mukta), whether he may dwell at home or in the woods, and live in poverty or affluence.

38. The contented soul is as solitary at home, as in the midst of the farthest forest; but the discontented mind find the solitary forest, to be as thickly thronged with vexations as the circle of a familyhouse.

39. The quiet and calmly composed spirit, finds the lonely woodland, where a human being is never to be seen even in a dream, to be as lovely to it as the bosom of a family dwelling.

40. The wise man who has lost the sight of the visibles, and of the endless particulars abounding in this forest of the world, beholds on every side the silent and motionless sphere of heaven spread all around him.

41. The thoughtless ignorant, whose insatiate ambition grasps the whole universe in his heart, rolls over the surface of the earth and all its boisterous seas with as much glee as upon a bed of flowers.

42. All these cities and towns, which are so tumultuous with the endless of men, appear to the ignorant and moneyless man as a garden of flowers; where he picks up his worthless penny with as much delight as holy men cull the fragrant blossoms to make their offerings to holy shrines.

1943. The wide earth with all her cities and towns, and distant districts and countries, which are so full of mutual strife and broil, appear to the soiled soul of the gross-headed and greedy, as if they are reflected in their fair forms in the mirror of their minds; or painted in their bright colours upon the canvas of their hearts. (Worldly men are so infatuated with the world, that they take side of things for fair and bright).

Vasishtha continued:—The abandonment of the world (which is otherwise termed as liberation—moksha), is effected only upon subsidence of one’s egoism and knowledge of the visibles in the conscious soul; in the manner of the extinction of a lamp for want of oil. (The knowledge of the phenomenal is the root of illusion, and it is the removal of this that is called the abandonment of the world, and the cause of liberation).

2. It is not the giving up of actions, but the relinquishment of the knowledge of the objective world, that makes our abandonment of it; and the subjective soul, which is without the reflexion of the visible world, and the objective-self, is immortal and indestructible.

3. After the knowledge of the self and this and that with that of mine and thine, becomes extinct like an extinguished lamp, there remains only the intelligent and subjective-soul by itself alone (and it is this state of the soul that is called its extinction—nirvána and its liberation or moksha).

4. But he whose knowledge of himself and others, and of mine and thine and his and theirs, has not yet subsided in his subjectivity, has neither the intelligence nor tranquility nor abandonment nor extinction of himself. (It is opposite of the preceding).

5. After extinction of one’s egoism and meism, there remains the sole and tranquil and intelligent soul, beside which there is nothing else in existence.

6. The egoistic part of the soul being weakened by the power of true knowledge, every thing in the world wastes away and dwindles into insignificance; and though nothing 21is lost in reality, yet every thing is buried in and with the extinction of the self. (So the Hindi adage:—Ápduba to jagduba—the self being lost, all things are lost with it).

7. The knowledge of the ego is lost under that of the non-ego, with any delay or difficulty; and it being so easy to effect it, there is no need of resorting to the arduous methods for removal of the same. (It being easy to ignore the silver in a shell, it is useless to test it in the fire).

8. The thoughts of ego and non-ego, are but false conceits of the mind; and the mind being as void as the clear sky, there is no solid foundation for this error.

9. No error has its vagary anywhere, unless it moves upon the basis of ignorance, it grows upon misjudgment, and vanishes at the light of reason and right judgment.

10. Know all existence to be the Intellect only; which is extended as an unreal vacuity; therefore sit silent in the empty space of the Intellect, wherein all things are extinct as nothing. (The reality of the Divine Mind, containing the ideal world which appears as a reality).

11. Whenever the idea of ego comes to occur in the mind, it should be put down immediately by its negative idea of the non-ego or that I am nothing.

12. Let the conviction of the non-ego supplant that of the ego, as a meaningless term, or as untrue as empty air, or a flower of the aerial arbour; and being fixed as an arrow in the bow-string of holy meditation, strive to hit at the mark of the Divine Essence.

13. Know always your ideas of ego & tu—I and thou, to be as unreal as empty air; and being freed from the false idea of every other thing, get over quickly across the delusive ocean of the world.

14. Say how is it possible for that senseless and beastly man, to attain to the highest state of divine perfection, who is unable to overcome his natural prejudice of egoism.

15. He who has been able by his good understanding, the sixfold beastly appetites of his nature; is capable of receiving 22the knowledge of great truths; and no other asinine man in human shape.

16. He who has weakened and overcome the inborn feelings of his mind, becomes the receptacle of all virtue and knowledge, and is called a man in its proper sense of the word.

17. Whatever dangers may threaten you on rocks and hills and upon the sea, you may escape from the same by thinking that they cannot injure your inward soul, though they may hurt the flesh.

18. Knowing that your egoism is nothing in reality, except your false conception of it, why then do you allow yourself to be deluded by it, like the ignorant who are misled by their phrenzy?

19. There is nothing (no ego) here, that is known to us in its reality; all our knowledge is erroneous as that of an ornament in gold (and springs from the general custom of calling it so), so is our knowledge of the ego which we know not what, and may be lost by our forgetfulness of it. (So the different names and shapes of golden ornaments being forgotten, we see the substance of gold only common in all of them).

20. Try to dislodge the thoughts that rise in your mind, in the manner of the incessant vibrations in the air, by thinking that you are not the ego, nor has your ego any foundation at all.

21. The man who has not overcome his egotism, and its concomitants of covetousness, pride and delusion, doth in vain attend to these lectures which are useless to him.

22. The sense of egoism and tuism which abides in thee, is no other than the stir of the Supreme spirit, which stirs alike in all as motion impels the winds.

23. The uncreated world which appears as in act of creation, is inherent and apparent in the Supreme soul, and notwithstanding all its defects and frailty, it is fair by being situated therein. (Because a thing however bad, appears beautiful by its position with the good).

24. The Supreme soul neither rises nor sets at any time; 23nor is there anything else besides that One, whether existent or inexistent. (All real and potential entities are contained in the mind of God).

25. All this is transcendental in the transcendent spirit of God, and everything is perfect in his perfection. All things are quiet in his tranquility, and whatever is, is good by the goodness of the Great God.

26. All things are extinct in the unextinguished spirit of God, they are quiet in his quiescence, and all good in his goodness; this extinction in the inextinct or ever existent soul of God, is no annihilation of any; it is understood as the sky, but is not the sky itself.

27. Men may bear the strokes of weapons and suffer under the pain of diseases; and yet how is it that no body can tolerate the thought of his unegoism or extinction.

28. The word ego is the ever growing germ of the significance of everything in the world (i.e. our selfishness gives growth to our need and want of all things for our use); and that (egoism or selfishness) being rooted out of the mind, this world also is uprooted from it. (i.e. Think neither of thyself or anything in the world as thine but of the Lord, and be exempt from thy cares of both).

29. The meaningless word ego, like empty vapour or smoke, has the property of soiling the mirror of the soul, which resumes its brightness after removal of the mist.

30. The significance of the word, I or ego, is as force or fluctuation in the calm and quiet atmosphere; and this force being still, the soul resumes its serenity, as that of the unseen and imperceptible and one eternal and infinite air. (Here is Vasishtha’s vacuism again).

31. The significance of the word ego, produces the shadow of external objects in the mind; and that being lost, there ensues that serenity and tranquility of the soul, which are the attributes of the unknowable, infinite and eternal God.

32. After the cloudy shadow of the sense of the word ego, is removed from the atmosphere of mind; there appears the 24clear firmament of transcendent truth, shining with serene brightness throughout its infinite sphere.

33. After the essence of the soul is purged of its dross, and there appears no alloy or base metal in it; it shines with its bright lustre as that of pure gold, when it is purified from its mixture with copper or other.

34. As an insignificant term (nirabhidhártha), bears no accepted sense (vypadesártha); so the unintelligible word ego bearing no definite sense of any particular person, is equal to the non-ego or impersonal entity of Brahma.

35. It is Brahma only that resides in the word ego (i.e. the word ego is applicable to God alone).

36. The meaning of the word ego, which contains the seed of world in it, is rendered abortive by our ceasing to think of it. Then what is the good of using the words I and thou, that serve only to bind our souls to this world. (Forget yourselves, to be free from bondage).

37. The essence is the pure and felicitous spirit, which is afterwards soiled under the appellation of ego, which rises out of that pure essence, as a pot is produced from the clay; but the substance is forgot under the form, as the gold is forgotten under that of the ornament.

38. It is this seed of ego, from which the visible plant of creation takes its rise; and produces the countless worlds as its fruits, which grow to fade and fall away.

39. The meaning of the word ego, contains in it like the minute seed of a long pepper, the wonderful productions of nature, consisting of the earth and sea, the hills and rivers, and forms and colours of things, with their various natures and actions.

40. The heaven and earth, the air and space, the hills and rivers on all sides, are as the fragrance of the full blown flower of the Ego.

41. The Ego in its widest sense, stretches out to the verge of creation, and contains all the worlds under it, as the wide spread day light comprehends all objects and their action under it.

2542. As the early daylight brings to view the forms and shapes and colours of things; so it is our egoism (which is but another name for ignorance) that presents the false appearance of the world to our visual sight.

43. When egoism like a particle of dirty oil falls into the pellucid water of Brahma; it spreads over its surface in the form of globules, resembling the orbs of worlds floating in the air.

44. Egoism sees at a single glance the myriads of worlds spread before its visual sight; as the blinking eye observes at a twinkling thousands of specks scattered before its sight.

45. Egoism (selfishness) being extended too far, perceives the furthest worlds lying stretched before its sight; but the unegotist or unselfish soul, like a sleeping man doth not perceive the nearest object, as our eyes do not see the pupils lying within them.

46. It is only upon the total extinction of our egoistic feelings, by the force of unfailing reasoning; that we can get rid of the mirage of the world.

47. It is by our constant reflection upon our consciousness only, that it becomes possible for us to <attain> the great object of our consummation—Siddhi; and the attainment of the perfection of our souls; we have nothing more to desire or grieve at nor any fear of falling into error.

48. It is possible by your own endeavour, and without the help of any person or thing, to attain to thy perfection; and therefore I see no better means for you to this than the thought of your unegoism.

49. Now Ráma, this is the abstract of the whole doctrine, that you forget your ego and tu, and extend the sphere of our soul all over the universe, and behold them all in yourself. Remain quite calm and quiet and without any sorrow, and exempt from all acts and pursuits of the frail and false world, and think the soul as one whole and not a part of the universe. (Samashti and not Vyashta).

Vasishtha continued:—The sensible man who employs himself in his inquiry after truth, after controlling his nature, and restraining his organs of sense from their objects, becomes successful in them at last.

2. But the man of perverted understanding, that has no command over his own nature, finds it as impossible for him to gain any good or better state, as it is in vain to expect to obtain any oil from pressing the sands.

3. A little instruction even is as impressive in the pure mind, as a drop of oil sticks to the clean linen; but no education has any effect on the hard heart of fools, as the most brilliant pearl makes no impression in the gritty glass mirror. (It casts but a shadow which never lasts).

4. I will here cite an instance to this purport, from an old anecdote related to me by the aged Bhusunda in by gone days; when I was living with him on the top of Sumeru mountain. (This proves the longevity of the Aryans in the ancient homestead beyond the Altain chain).

5. I had once in times of old, mooted this question among other things to the time worn Bhusunda, when he was dwelling in his solitary retreat in one of the caves of Meru, saying:—

6. O long living seer, do you remember to have ever seen, any such person of infatuated understanding, who was unconscious of himself and ignorant of his own soul? (The mugdha or infatuated is explained as one of ungoverned mind and senses and employed in vain labour and toil).

7. Bhusunda replied:—Yes, there lived a Vidyádhara of 27old, on the top of the mountain on the horizon; who was greatly distressed with incessant toil, and yet anxious for his longevity (by performance of his devotion for prolongation of life).

8. He betook himself to austerities of various kinds, and to the observance of abstinence, self-restraint and vows of various forms; and obtained thereby an undecaying life, which lasted for many ages of four kalpas of four yugas each.

9. At the end of the fourth kalpa he came to his sense, and his percipience burst forth on a sudden in his mind, as the emeralds glare out of ground in the distant country (of Burmah); at the roaring of clouds. (Emeralds are called vaidúryas below from their production in the vidura or distant land of Burmah; where there are many ruby mines also; but vaidúryas are the sky coloured sapphire or lapis lazuli; and often called as emeralds).

10. He then reflected in himself saying:—What stability can I have in this world, where all beings are seen to come repeatedly into existence, to decay with age, and at last to die and dwindle away into nothing? I am ashamed to live in this state of things and under such a course of nature.

11. With these reflections he came to me, quite disgusted in his spirit at the frailties of the world, and distasteful of banefull vanities; and then proposed to me his query regarding the city with its eighteen compartments. (i.e. The body with its ten organs, five vital airs, the mind, soul, and body).

12. He advanced before me, and bowed down profoundly; and after being honoured by me, he took the opportunity to propose his questions to me.

13. The Vidyádhara said:—I see these organs of my body, which though so frail, are yet as hard and strong as any weapon of steel; they are capable of breaking and tearing every thing, and hurtful in their acts of injuring others.

14. I find my senses to be dim and dark, and always disturbed and leading to dangers (by their mistake of things). Again the passions in the heart, are setting fire to the forest of our 28good qualities, and boiling with the waves of sorrow and grief; while the dark ignorance of our minds, envelops every thing in the deepest gloom. Hence it is that the control, over our bodily organs, senses and the passions and feelings of the heart and mind, is only attended with our real happiness, which is not to be had from any object of sense.

The Vidyádhara continued:—Tell me even now, what is that most noble state (or highest category), which is devoid of increase or decrease or any pain whatever; which is without beginning and end, and which is most sanctified and sanctifying.

2. I had been so long sleeping as an inert soul, and now I am awakened to sense by the grace of the Supreme Soul: (displayed in the present vairágya or dispassionateness of the speaker).

3. My mind is heated with the fervour of the fever of my insatiate desire, and is full of regret at the state of my ignorance; now raise me from the depth of darkness in which I am grovelling under my delusion.

4. Many a time doth misfortune overtake the fortunate, and bitter sorrows betide the wise and learned; just as the hoar-frost falls on the tender leaves of lotuses, and discolours them at the end.

5. We see the frail living beings springing to birth, and dying away at all times to no purposes, they are neither for virtuous acts nor their liberation, but are born to die only, as the gnats and ephemera of dirt. (The Vidyádhara like the cynic, finds fault with every earthly thing).

6. How have I passed through different stages of life, how with one state of things and then with another, and deceived by the gain of paltry trifles. We are always discontent with the present state, and cheated repeatedly by the succeeding one.

7. The unwearied mind, ever running after its frail pleasures, and floating as it were upon the breakers of its enjoyments, 30has no end of its rambling, nor rest after its toils; but wanders onward in the desert paths of this dreary world.

8. The objects of enjoyment, that are the causes of our bondage in this world, and appear as very charming and sweet at first; are all frail and ever changeful in their natures, and prove to be our bane at last.

9. Actuated by our consorting egoism, and led by the sense of honour to live in dishonour, I am degraded from the dignity my high birth as a vidyádhara, and am not pleased with myself.

10. I have seen the pleasure garden of Chitra-ratha (the chief of the Gandharva tribe); and all the sweet and soft flowery beds on earth; I have slept under the bowers of Kalpa Creepers in paradise, and have given away all my wealth and property in charity.

11. I have sported in the groves of Meru, and about the cities of the Vidyádharas; I have wandered about in heavenly cars, and in the aerial regions on all sides (in balloons or aerial cars).

12. I have halted amidst the heavenly forces, and reposed on the arms of my consorts; I have joined the bands of Haris in their jocund frolic and music, and have promenaded through the cities of the rulers of mankind.

13. I saw nothing of any worth among them, except the bitter sorrow of my heart in all; and I come now to find by my best reason, that every thing is burnt down to ashes before me.

14. My eyes which by their visual power, are ever inclined to dwell upon the sights of things, and to dote with fondness upon the face of my mistress, have been the cause of great affliction to my mind.

15. My eye-sight runs indiscriminately after all beautiful objects, without its power of considering, whether this or that is for our good or bad: (i.e. Without the power of penetrating into and distinguishing the properties and qualities of objects).

16. My mind also, which is ever prompt to meet all hazards, 31and to expose itself to all kinds of restraints, never finds its rest until it is overwhelmed under some danger, and brought under the peril of death.

17. My scent likewise is ever alert in seeking after fragrant and delicious things to its own peril, and it is difficult for me to repress it, as it is hard for one to restrain an unruly horse.

18. I am restrained by the sense of my smelling to the two canals of my nostrils, bearing the putrid breath and cough and cold of the body; and am constrained like a prisoner or captive of war to the dungeon by my jailer or captor.

19. It is on account of this lickerish tongue of mine, that I am forced to seek for my food in these rugged and dreary rocks, which are the haunt of wild elephants, and where the wolves are prying for their forage. (From this it appears that, the Vidyádharas were a tribe of mountaineers in the north of the Himalayas).

20. I am to restrain the sensitiveness of my body, and to make my skin (the twak indreya or the organ of feeling), to endure the heat of the hot weather of the kindled fire and of the burning sun (all which it is necessary to be undergone in the austere devotion known as Panchatapa).

21. My ears, sir, which ought to take a delight in the hearing of good lectures, are always inclined to listen to talk that are no way profitable to me; but mislead me to wrong; as the grassy turf covering a well, tempts the silly stag to his ruin.

22. I have listened to the endearing speeches of my friends and servants, and attended to the music of songs and instruments, to no lasting good being derived therefrom. (Sensuous pleasures are transient, and are not attended with any permanent good).

23. I have beheld the beauty of beauties, and the natural beauty of objects on all sides; I have seen the sublimity of mountains and seas, and the grandeur of their sides and borders; I have witnessed the prosperity of princes and the brilliancy of gem and jewels.

24. I have long tasted the sweets of the most delicious 32dishes, and have relished the victuals of the six different savours, that were served to me by the handsomest damsels.

25. I have associated with the lovely damsels clad in their silken robes, and wearing their necklaces of pearls, reclined on beds of flowers and fanned by soft breezes; I have had all these pleasures of touch, and enjoyed them unrestrained in my pleasure gardens.

26. I have smelt the odours on the faces of fairy damsels, and have had the smell of fragrant balms, perfumeries and flowers; and I have inhaled the fragrance, borne to me by the breath of the soft, gentle and odoriferous breezes.

27. Thus have I seen and heard, felt and smelt, and repeatedly tasted whatever sweets this earth could afford. They have now become dry, distasteful, stale and unpleasurable to me; say what other sweet is there left for me yet to enjoy.

28. I have enjoyed all these enjoyments of my senses for a full thousand years, and still I find nothing either in this earth or in heaven, which is able to yield full satisfaction to my mind.

29. I have reigned for a longtime over a realm, and enjoyed the company of the courtezans in my court, I have vanquished the forces of my enemies in battle, but I know not great gain I have gained thereby. (All is vanity of vanities only).

30. Those (demons) that were invulnerable in warfare, and usurped to the dominion of the three worlds, even those invincible giants, have been reduced to ashes in a short time.

31. I think that to be the best gain, which being once gained by us, there remains nothing else to be desired or gained herein; I must now therefore, remain in quest of that precious gain, however it may be attended with pain.

32. What difference is there between those, who have enjoyed the most delightful pleasures, and others that have never enjoyed them at all; nobody has ever seen the heads of the former kind crowned with kalpa laurels, nor the latter with diminished heads.

33. I have been long led by my organs of sense, to the 33enjoyment of beautiful objects in the wilderness of the world, and have been quite deceived by them like a child by cheat. (All enticements are deceitful at the end).

34. I have come too late and to-day only to know, that the objects of my senses are my greatest enemies; and this I have known after being repeatedly deceived by my organs of sense.

35. I see the deceitful organs of sense like so many sly huntsmen, have laid their snares about the wild forest of this world, only to entrap all unwary people in them, as they do the silly stags or beasts of prey by enticements.

36. There are but very few men in this world, who are not found to be envenomed by the deadly poison of their serpent-like organs of sense.

37. The forest of the world is full with the furious elephants of enjoyments, and surrounded by the snare of our desire, wherein our greediness is roving rampant with sword in hand, and our passions are stirring like keen spearmen, and rending our hearts and souls every moments.

38. Our bodies are become as a field of battle, where the commanding charioteer of our egoism hath spread the net of duplicity, by employing our efforts as horsemen, and setting our desires as boisterous rioters.

39. The organs of sense are set as flag-bearers, at the extremities of the battle-field of our bodies; and they are reckoned as the best soldiers, who are able by their prowess to overtake these staff-bearers in the field.

40. It may be possible for us, to pierce the frontal bone even of the furious Airávata elephant of Indra in war; but it is too hard for any body, to repress the aberrant senses within their proper bounds.

41. It is reckoned as the greatest victory, that may be won by the valour, magnanimity, and fortitude of great men, if they can but conquer the unconquerable organs of sense, which makes the utmost glory of the great (or which redounds with the greatest to the great).

42. So long as a man is not flung and carried about as a light and trifling straw, by the irresistible force of his sensual 34appetites, he is said to have attained to the perfection and excellence of the deities of heaven.

43. I account men of well governed senses and those of great fortitude, to be truly men in their sense, or else all other men of ungoverned minds, are mere moving machines of the flesh and bones that compose their bodies.

44. O Sage! I think I can overcome all things, if I can but reduce the force of the five external organs of sense, which form the battalion under the command of the mind (and is led against the province of the soul).

45. Unless you can heal your sensual appetites, which forms the great malady of the mind, by the prescriptions of your reason, you cannot get rid of them by any medicine or mantra, or by holy pilgrimage or any other remedy. (The subjection of the senses, is the first step to holiness).

46. I am led to great distress by the joint force of my senses, as a lonely traveller is waylaid in his journey by a gang of robbers. (It may be possible to withstand any particular appetite but not all at once).

47. The organs of sense are as dirty canals of the body, with their stagnate and foul watery matter, they are filled with noxious and hairy moss, and emit a malarious stink.

48. The senses seem to me as so many deep and dark forests, covered with impervious snows, and full of terrors that render them impassable to travellers.

49. The organs of the outward senses resemble the stalks of lotuses, growing upon the dirt of the body with holes in them, but without any visible thread therein. They are knotty on the outside, and without any sensibility of their own; (except what is supplied to them by the soul).

50. Our sensualities are as so many seas with their briny waters, and huge billows dashing on every side; they abound with various gems and pearls, but are full of horrible whales and sharks at the same time.

51. Sensual pleasure brings on the untimely death of the sensualist, and causes the grief and sadness of his friends there-in; 35it makes others to take pity on his state, and mourn at his fate, which conducts him to repeated transmigrations only.

52. The senses are as vast and unlimited wilderness to men, which prove friendly to the wise, and inimical to the unwise.

53. The sphere of the senses is as dark as that of the clouded sky, where the black clouds of distress are continually growling, and the lightnings of joy are incessantly flashing with their transient glare.

54. The organs of sense are as subterranean cells or mounds of mud upon earth; these are resorted to by inferior animals, but shunned by superior and intelligent beings.

55. They are like hidden caves on earth overspread with thorns and brambles, and inbred with venomous snakes, in which the unwary fall to be smitten and bitten to death.

56. All sensualities are as savage Rákshasas or cannibals, that rove and revel about in their venturous excursions in the darkness of night; and glut themselves with human victims.

57. Our organs of sense are as dry sticks, all hollow and pithless in the inside; they are crooked and full of joints all along, and fit only as fuel for fire.

58. The bodily organs are the instruments of vice, and are as pits and thickets on our way; they are fitted with dirt within, like the notes of canes and reeds that are full of useless stuff.

59. The organic limbs and members are the implements of action, and the apparatus for producing an infinite variety of works. They are like the potter’s wheels, turning and whirling with their mud, in order to produce the fragile pottery of clay.

60. Thus Sir, I am plunged in the dangerous sea of my sensual appetites, and you alone are able to raise me out of it by your kindness to me; because they say, that holy saints only are victorious over their senses in this world, and it is their society only that removes the griefs of mankind, and saves them from the perilous sea of sensuality.

Bhusunda replied:—Having heard the aforesaid holy speech of the Vidyádhara, I answered to what he asked in plain words as follows.

2. Well said, O chief of the Vidyádharas, and it proves thee to be awakened to thy good sense by thy good fortune for thy edification, that thou dost after so long desire to be raised, out of the dark pit and dungeon of the world.

3. Thy holy intentions shine as bright as the blazing clouds in the midday light; and as pure liquid gold melted down by the fire of right reasoning.

4. Thy clear mind will be able to grasp the meaning, of my admonition to you with ease; as the clean mirror is capable of receiving the reflexion of every object set before it. (The clear mind like a clear mirror reflects every thing in it).

5. You must give your assent to what I say, by uttering the syllable Om—yes to the same; as you can have no doubt to take for certain truth, what I have come to know by my long research.

6. Know well and by giving up your ignorance, that what thou feelest within thee (i.e. thy egoism), is not thy very self; and it is hard to have it (your soul or self), notwithstanding your long search after the same.

7. Know it for certain that there is no egoism or tuism (i.e. subjective or objective knowledge), nor even this phenomenal world, that may be called the real entity; but all this is the blissful God, who is no cause of either thy happiness or misery (but reigns absolutely supreme in himself).

8. Whether this world is a creation of our ignorance, or 37whether it is ignorance itself, is what we cannot ascertain by our reasoning; because there being but one simple entity alone, there is no possibility of the co-existence of the duality (of subjective and objective).

9. The world appears as the water in the mirage; it is unsubstantial and though appearing as something real, it is in reality nothing at all. The phenomenon that appears to view, is himself and nothing otherwise.

10. The world being as the water in the mirage (a mere nullity); there is neither its existence nor its inexistence neither, there can be no reflexion of it either (because a void has no shadow); and therefore it must be but God himself.

11. The seed of the world is the Ego or the subjective self, and the Tu or the objective world, is to be known as derived from the subjective self or egoism. Such being the case, the visible world with all its lands and seas, its mountains and rivers and gods also, is the huge tree growing out of the same seminal source of egoism.

12. The great arbour of the worlds, grows out of the particle of egoism; the organs of sense are the succulent roots of this tree; and the far overspreading orbs of the sky, are the many divergent branches of the main arbor of the mundane world.

13. The starry frame in the sky, is the netted canopy over this arbour on high; and the groups of constellations, are bunches of blossoms of this tree; the desires of men are as the long fibres and lengthening filaments of the tree, and the lightsome moons are the ripe fruits thereof.

14. The many spheres of heaven, are the hollows of this large and great tree; and the Meru, Mandara and other mountains, are its protuberant boughs and branches.

15. The seven oceans are the ditches of water, dug at the foot and root of this tree; and the infernal region is the deep pit underlying the root of this tree; the yugas and cycles of periods are its knots and joints, and the rotation of time over it, is as the circle of worms sucking up its juice for evermore.

3816. Our ignorance is the ground of its growth, and all peoples are as flights of birds hovering upon it; its false apprehension forms its great trunk, which is burnt down by the conflagration of nirvána or our knowledge of the utter extinction of all things.

17. The sights of things, the thoughts of the mind, and the various pleasures of the world, are all as false as a grove or forest in the sky; or as silver in the face of the hoary clouds, or in the coating of conch and pearl shells.

18. The seasons are its branches (in which they grow and wither away); and the ten sides of the air are its smaller boughs; because they spread themselves in all directions; self-consciousness is the pith and marrow of this tree (and of all sensible creatures), and the wind of the air is the breath of life, that fluctuates in every part of this tree of the world.

19. The sun-shine and moon-beams, are the two flowers of this tree; their rising and setting represent the opening and closing of blossoms; and the daylight and darkness of night, are as butterflies and bumble bees fluttering over them.

20. Know at last, that one all pervading ignorance, extends all over this tree of the world; stretching from its root in the Tartarus, on all sides of the compass and its top in the heavens above. It is all an unreality appearing as real existence, and egoism which is the seed of this fallacy, being burnt up by the fire un-egoism, it will no more vegetate in the form of this arbour of the world; nor put forth itself in future births and continuous transmigrations in this visionary world.

Bhusunda continued and said:—Now Vidyádhara! You have heard, how the mundane arbor comprises the earth with her mountains and cavern abodes, and stretches to all sides and touches the skies, bearing all living being continually moving and living upon it (i.e. its produce).

2. Such is the mundane tree, growing out of the seed of egoism; but this seed being roasted by the fire of reason, ceases to sprout forth anymore (i.e. into new life in future births).

3. The visibles are not existent, nor is I or thou (i.e. the subjective or objective) ever a positive reality, and this fallacy of their positivity is wholly burnt away by the knowledge of tajjnána or their identity with God (i.e. in the extinction of all distinctive knowledge in the entity of the sole unity).

4. As it is the thought of I and thou that begets the idea of egoism and tuism, which becomes the seed of the world; so it is the thought of non-ego et tu, that removes the idea of egoism and tuism, and this is the true and best knowledge of God.

5. Think of the inexistence of the world before its creations, and say where was then this knowledge of egoism and tuism, or this delusion of the unity or duality.

6. Those who strive diligently to get rid of their desires altogether, according to the instructions of their preceptors (as given before); verily they become successful in obtaining the supreme state (of the knowledge and presence of God).

7. As the confectioner becomes skilful in his profession, by his learning and practice of the art of confectionary; so the 40inquirer after truth becomes successful by constant application to it and by no other means. (So also doth the yogi thrive in his yoga, by and under the direction of his spiritual guide).

8. Know the world to be the wonderful phenomenon of the intellect, and it does not exist in the outer space as it appears to the naked eye, but in the inner mind (which bears the prototype of the world).

9. As a picture is the fac-simile of the pattern, which is inscribed in the painter’s mind; so it is the twinkling of our thought only, that unfolds or obscures the world unto us by its opening and closing.

10. This thought or fancy of the mind, portrays to sight a large edifice supported upon big and huge columns, and studded with gems and pearls; and gilt over with gildings of bright gold.

11. It is surrounded by a thousand pillars of precious stones, rising high like the pinnacles of Sumeru; and emitting the various of the rainbows, and glittering with the brightness of the evening sun on the clouds.

12. It is furnished with many a fountain (of the seas and rivers), for the sport of men, women, and children living under it; and amidst the decorations of all kinds of animals in it.

13. It is full of elements, with its enemy of darkness that is light, darkness and light are its alternate result, hence it has derived its name—chitra picture.

14. There were lakes of lotuses with kalpa trees, beside them for the sport of women, who plucked their flowers for their decorations of them, and which scattered about their fragrance as plentifully; as the clouds sprinkle their rain-waters all around.

15. Here the great kuláchalas or boundary mountains, were as light as toys in the hands of boys; and they were tossed and whirled about as play things, by the breath of little lads. (i.e. Mountains are minute things with respect to the great fabric of the universe).

4116. Here the bright evening clouds were as the glittering earrings of the ladies, and the light and fleet autumn clouds like flying fans and flappers; the heavy clouds of the rainy season, moved as slow as the waving fans of palm leaves; and the orb of the earth moved about as a dice on the chess-board, under the canopy of the starry heavens.

17. Here all living creatures and the sun and moon, are moving about as the dice and king and queen on the chess-board; and the appearance and disappearance of the world in the arena of vacuum, are as the gain or loss in the chess play of the gods (Brahmá and others).

18. As a thought that is long dwelt upon and brooded over in the mind, comes to appear as really present before the sight of its entertainer (i.e. as the imagination assumes the shape of an apparition to sight).

19. So is this formal world a visible representation of the thoughts or workings of the mind, it is as an exquisite performance of the mind of the artist, from the prototype ingrafted in the soul.

20. It is the apparition of an unreality, and is present in appearance but absent in substance; it is verily the appearance of an unreality, by whatever cause it may have come to appear. (The Cause is said to be the original ignorance or delusion (ádi-avidyá or máyá)).

21. It is as the sight of the forms of ornaments, in the same substance of gold; and the vault of the world, is as full of ever changing wonders, as the changeful and wondrous thoughts of the mind. Wherefore it is the cessation of thought, that causes the extinction of the world. (Nothing exists to us whereof we have no thought).

22. Hence it lies entirely in your power, to have or leave the world as you may like; either disregard your temporal enjoyments, if you have your final liberation; or continue in your acts and rites, in order to continue in your repeated transmigrations through endless births and deaths.

4223. I understand you have attained your state of rationality; and have purified your soul in this your second or third stage of Yoga; I believe you will not fall back or come down to a lower order, therefore hold your silence and rely in the purity of the soul and shut out invisibles from your sight.

Bhusunda said:—The unintelligible objects of thought are phenomena of the intellect; they lie as calmly in the great mass or inert body of the intellect, as the sunbeams shine in the bosom of a clear basin of water (where they retain their light without their heat).

2. The unintelligent world subsists in the intelligent intellect, by its power of intellection; and remains alike with the unlike (i.e. matter with the mind), as the submarine fire resides in the water, and the latent heat with cold.

3. The intelligent and the unintelligent (i.e. the subjective I and the objective—these) have both their source in the intellection of the intellect, which produces and reduces them from and into itself, as it is the same force of the wind, which kindles as well as extinguishes the fire.

4. Do you rest in the intellect, which remains after negation of your egoism (which is the cause of both the subjective and the objective): and remain in that calm and quiet state of the soul, which results from your thinking in this manner. (i.e. By forgetting yourself, you forget everything else besides the wakeful intellect).

5. Thou art settled in thy form of the intellect, both within and without every thing; as the sweet water remains in and out of a raining cloud. (The gloss explains it saying that, after you are freed from all thoughts, you see the sole Brahma only).

6. There is nothing as I or thou, but all are forms of one intellect, and connected with the same which is Brahma itself; there is none else besides which is endued with intelligence, but the whole is one stupendous intelligence, with which nothing can be compared.

447. It is itself the earth, heaven and nether world, with their inhabitants of men, gods and demigods; and exhibits in itself the various states of their being and actions (as upon its stage).

8. As the world is seen to remain quietly, in its representation map; so doth the universe appear from its portraiture in the vacuum or ample space of the divine mind.

9. Hence we see the various appearances, as the divine mind unfolds from itself and exhibits to view; as it depends on your option, either to view them as animated or inanimated beings; (as you may choose to do the figures of animals, drawn in a picture).

10. These are the wondrous phenomena of the intellect, which appear as so many worlds in the open sky; they are as the mirage spread over by the sun-beams for delusion of the ignorant; while they appear as empty air to the learned, who view them in their true light.

11. As the blinded eye, beholds spectres and spectrums in the clear sky; so doth the world appear as a phantom and phantasmagoria, before the purblind sight of the unspiritual and ignorant people in general.

12. Thus the knowledge of the objective world, and that of the subjective ego, are mere reflexions of the ideas in the mind, which appear and disappear by turns; just as a city is gilded or shaded by the falling and failing of the sunbeams thereon; but in this case city houses are realities, but the apparitions of the mind, are as baseless as garden in the empty sky.

Bhusunda continued:—Know O Vidyádhara! the world as an evolution of Divine intelligence, and not as an inert mass and distinct from that intelligence as it appears to be. And as the reflexion of fire (or fiery sunbeams) in water, is nothing different from the nature of the cold water; so the reflexion of the world in the Divine intelligence, is not at all distinct from the substance of that Intelligence itself.

2. Therefore remain at rest without making any distinction, between your knowledge of the world or its absence; (because the refutation of the existence of gross matter altogether, refutes the existence of the gross world also); and because a picture drawn only on the tablet of the painter’s mind, and not painted on an outward plate, is as false as the knowledge of the fairy land in the empty air or vacuum.

3. The omnipotence of Brahma contains also the insensible (or gross) matter in his intelligence; as the calm and clear water of the sea contains the matter of the future froth and foam within itself.

4. As the froth is not produced in the water, without some cause or other; so the creation never proceeds from the essence of Brahma, without its particular cause also. (This cause is said to be Máyá).

5. But the uncaused and causeless Brahma, can have no cause whatever for his creation of the world; nor is any thing at this world or other, ever born or destroyed in himself. (No material substance is ever born or lost in the spiritual essence of God).

6. The entire want of a cause (either material or formal), makes the growth and formation of the world an utter impossibility, 46it is as impossible as the growth of a forest or the sight of a sea in the mirage of a desert as it appears to be.

7. The nature of Brahma is being the same as infinity and eternity, it is tranquil and immutable at all times; and is not therefore liable to entertain a thought or will of the creation at anytime. Thus there being no temporary cause for such, the world itself must be identic with Brahma himself.

8. Therefore the nature of Brahma is both as empty as the hollow vacuity of air, as also as dense as the density of a rock; so it is the solidity of Brahma that represents the solid cosmos, as his tenuity displays the inane atmosphere.

9. Whether you can understand anything or nothing, regarding the mysterious nature of the Deity, remain quite unconcerned about it; and rest your soul in that Supreme spirit, wherein all intelligence and its absence are both alike. (To him no great or small but are all alike).

10. The everlasting bliss of the uncreated God, has no cause for his creation of the world, which cannot augment his bliss; therefore know all that is and exists to the increate God himself, from the improbability of his making a creation to no purpose whatsoever.

11. Of what use is it to reason with the ignorant, concerning the production and destruction of creation (i.e. about the existence or inexistence of the objective world); when they have not the Divine Intellect in their view (as all in all or as both the subjective and objective in itself).

12. Wherever there is the Supreme being, there is the same accompanied with the worlds also (as it is impossible to have the idea of God, without the association of the world); because the meaning of the word world, conveys the sense of their variety.

13. The supreme Brahma is present in everything in all places, such as in the woods and grass, in the habitable earth and in the waters likewise. So the creatures of God teem in every part of creation together with the all-creative power.

14. It is improper to ask, what is the nature and constitution of Brahma; because there is no possibility of ascertaining 47the essence and absence of the properties of that infinite and transcendental entity.

15. All want—abháva being wanting in him, who is full—púrna in himself; and any particular nature—bháva being inapplicable to the infinite One, who comprehends all nature in him; all words significant of his nature are mere paralogism.

16. Inexistence and non-entity being altogether impossible, of the everlasting and self-existent being; who is always existent in his own essence, any word descriptive of his nature, is but a misrepresentation of his true nature and quality.

17. He is neither I nor thou (the subjective or the objective); who is unknowable to the understanding, and invisible to the people in all the worlds; and yet He is represented as such and such, as false phantoms of the brain which presents themselves as ghosts to boys.

18. That which is free from or beyond the sense of I and thou—the subject and object, is known as the truly Supreme; but what is seen under the sense of I and thou, proves to be null and void.

19. The distinction of the world from the essence of Brahma, is entirely lost in the sight of them, that have unity of Brahma only before their view. The subjective and objective are of equal import to them, who believe all sensible objects as mere productions of fancy from the very substance of Brahma, as the various ornaments are but transformations of the same material of gold &c.

Bhusunda continued:—He is said to be situated in the seat of the Supreme, who has his mind unmoved at the stroke of a weapon of his bare body, as also at the touch of a form with his naked person. (One must practice his self-controul until he attains to this state of insensibility of both his body and mind).

2. One must strive by exercise of his manly powers and patience, to practice his rigid hebetude or stoicity, as long as he attains to his somnolence or hypnotism over all visible appearances. (Hypnotism is asleep over the phenomenal, but wakeful to the spiritual).

3. The wise man who is acquainted with the truths of nature, is not to be thwarted back by the severest tribulation and persecution; as the heaving waves of the lake, cannot submerge the lotus that stands firm amidst its water.

4. He who is impassive as the empty air, to the strokes of weapons on his person, and unaffected by the embraces of beauties; is the only person who sees inwardly what is worth seeing: (though he is outwardly as insensible as a block of stone).

5. As poison breeds the rust in itself, which is not different from the nature of poison.

6. So the infinity of souls which are produced in the Supreme spirit, retain the nature of their original; and which they are capable of knowing.

7. As the insect that is born in the poison, does not die by the same; so the human soul which is produced by the eternal soul, is not subject to death, nor does it forsake its own nature, though it takes a grosser form like the vile figure of the poisonous insects.

498. Things born in or produced by Brahma, are of the same nature with itself, though different from it in appearance; such is the rust and mustiness of meat, which adheres to the food and appears as otherwise. So the world subsisting in Brahma, seems as something without it. (The fruit is alike its tree, though unlike to it in its shape and size).

9. No worm is born in poison, that does not retain the nature of poison; it never dies in it without being revivified in the same. (All things that are seen to die in nature, have only to be regenerated in another form, or as it is said “we die but to be born again”).

10. It is owing to the indestructible property of self-consciousness, that all beings pass over the great gulph of death, as they leap over a gap in the ground hide by the foot mark of a bull (goshpad).

11. Why is it, that men neglect to lay hold on that blessed state, which is beyond and above all other states in life, and which when had, infuses a cool calmness in the soul?

12. What a great stain it is to the pure soul, to neglect the meditation of the glorious God, before which our mind, egoism and understanding, do all vanish into nothing or insignificance.

13. As you look upon a pot and a piece of cloth as mere trifles, so should you consider your body as brittle as glass, and your mind, understanding and egoism also as empty nothing.

14. Therefore it is for the wise and learned, to divert their attention from all worldly things, as also from their internal powers of the mind and understanding; and to remain steadfast in their consciousness of the soul.

15. The wise man takes no notice of the faults or merits of others; nor does he take heed of the happiness or misery of himself or any body; knowing well that no one is the doer or sufferer of anything whatever.

Bhusunda continued:—As the supposition of one vacuity (as that subsisting in a pot or any spot), to be a part or derived from the universal vacuum is false and wrong; so the conception of the visionary ego (as produced from the unknown vacuum Brahma), is altogether an error. (i.e. The error of conceiving a subtile or gross spirit called the ego, proceeds from ignorance of the True Spirit).

2. The erroneous conception of limited vacuities, being produced from the unlimited vacuum, has given rise to the mistaken belief of unreal and individual souls, as proceeding from the one universal and undivided soul of God.

3. The divine intellect exists in the form of air in air, which it takes for its body; it is manifest throughout the aerial sphere and therefore I am neither the ego nor the non-ego either. (Man is the ego in his intellectual part, and the non-ego in his material frame).

4. The unity of the subtile intellect is of such a nature, that it contains the gravity of the immense world in it (i.e. in its thought); in the same manner as a ponderous mountain is contained in an atom (or as it is composed of atomic particles). The conscious intellect is of the form of air (empty and all pervading in its nature). (This is another instance of the vacuous essence of God, according to the vacuistic theory of Vasishtha).

5. The intellect which is rarer than subtile air, thinks in itself the gross nature of unintellectual matter; which exhibits 51itself in the form of the world. (The dull external world, is a counter part of the internal conception of the mind).

6. It is well known to the spiritualist, that the egoism of ourselves and the materialism of the world, are but dilations of the intellect; as the currents and curlings of streams in eddies are but dilations of water. (This process of the Divine spirit is called its vivarta rúpa).

7. When this process of the intellect is at a stop, the whole course of nature is at a stand still, like the liquid water of the lake without its undulation; or like the quiet sphere of the sky, without the stir or agitation of winds in it. (It means to say that, as the motion of the spirit causes the action of the world, so its cessation nivarta-rúpa, put an end to the course of nature).

8. Thus there is no other cause of any physical action, in anything in any part or period of the world; except what is derived from the agitation of the Intellect, without which this whole is a shapeless void and nil.

9. It is the action of the intellect, that makes the world to appear to us at all times and places; whether in the sky, water or land, as also when we wake, sleep or dream (and this action of the mind being put to a stop in death deep sleep, the world ceases to exist both in the mind and to our external senses also).

10. The action and inaction of the intellect, is imperceptible to our understanding, owing to the extreme tenuity of the mind, which is more transparent than the clear sky.

11. The knowing soul that is unified or settled as one with the Supreme spirit, is unconscious of its pleasure or pain and the sense of its egoism; and being melted down into the divine essence, it resides as the fluidity of the psychic fluid.

12. The sapient mind is regardless of all external intelligence, fortune, fame, or prosperity; and having no desire or hope to rise or fear or shame to fall, he sees none of these things before him, as one sees no object of broad daylight in the gloom of night. (The holy man has lost sight of all worldly things).

13. The moonlight of the intellect which issues forth from the moon like disk of the glory of God, fills the universe with 52its ambrosial flood; and there is no other created world, nor its receptacles of time and space, except the essence of Brahma, which fills the whole.

14. Thus the whole universe being full with the glorious essence of God, it is the mind which revolves with the spheres of the worlds on itself, like the curling circles on the surface of waters.

15. The revolving world, is evanescently rolling on like a running stream to its decay, with its ever rising and sinking waves, and its gurgling and whirling eddies and whirlpools.

16. As the moving sands appear as water (in the mirage of the desert), and as the distant smoke seems as a gathering clouds to the deluded; so doth this world appear to them as a gross object of creation, and a third thing beside the Divine spirit and Mind.

17. As the wood pared by the saw appear as separate blocks, and as the water divided by the winds has the appearance of detached waves; so doth this creation in the Supreme spirit, seem to be something without and different from it.

18. The world is as unsolid and unsubstantial, as the stem of a plantain tree, and as false and frail as the leaves of the arbour of our desire; it is plastic in its nature, but as hard as stone in the substance. (Being like the shadow of something in the hard crystal of the Divine Mind).

19. It is personified in the form of Virát, with his thousand heads and feet, and as many arms, faces and eyes; and his body filling all sides, with all the mountains, rivers and countries situated in it.

20. It is empty within and any pith in it, it is painted in many colours and having no colour of itself.

21. It is studded all over with bodies of gods and demigods, gandharvas, vidyádharas and great serpents; it is inert (dull matter of itself), and is moved by the all moving air of sutrátma—the all connecting spirit of God; and is animated by the all enlivening anima of the Supreme soul.

22. As the scene of a great city appears brilliant to sight, in a painting which is well drawn on a canvas, so does the picture 53of the world, which is displayed by imagination in the retina of the mind, appear charming to them, who do not deign to consider (to examine) it in its true light.

23. The reflexion of the unreal and imaginary world, which falls on the mirror of the fickle and fluctuating mind; appears to swim upon its surface, as a drop of oil floats over the face of water.

24. This world is overspread with the network of the feelings imprinted in the heart, and interspersed with winding eddies of mistake and misery; it runs with the flood of our affections, and with silent murmurs of sorrow.

25. The understanding is apt to attribute optionally, the predicates I, thou and so forth to the original and prime Intellect; but none of these is apart from the Supreme one, as the fluid is no other than the water itself. (Jíva—the living soul and Brahma—the universal being synonymous terms there is no distinction whatever between them).

26. The luminous Intellect itself is styled the creation, (after it has assumed to itself the title of ego or its personality); or else there is no other creation or any creator thereof (beside the everlasting intellect, which is represented as the personal God-Ego and personified as the creation itself).

27. As the power of impulsion is inherent in every moving substance, like the blowing of winds and flowing of water; so the intellectual soul, being of a vacuous form, knows all things in their vacuous or ideal states only.

28. As seas and oceans are becoming the seeming cause of separate name of countries, by separating the connection from one land to another, though the vacuum remains ever the same; so delusion is the cause of different ideas and dreams of material objects, but spirit remains unchangeful forever.

29. Know the words mind, egoism, understanding and such other terms, which are significant of the idea of knowledge; to proceed from ignorance alone, and are soon removed by proper investigation into them.

5430. It is by means of conversation with the wise, that it is possible for us to remove one half of this ignorance, and it is by investigation into the sástras, that we are enabled to remove a quarter of it, while our belief of and reliance in the Supreme spirit, serves to put down the remaining fourth part of it altogether.

31. Having thus divided yourself into the said four-fold duties, and destroyed by degree the four parts of ignorance by each of them; you will find at last a nameless something which is the true reality itself.

32. Ráma said:—I can understand sir, how a moiety of our ignorance is removed by conversation with the wise, as also how a fourth part of it driven by the study of sástras, but tell me sir, how the remainder of it is removed by our belief and reliance in the spirit.

33. Tell me sir, what you mean by the simultaneous and gradual removal of ignorance, and what am I to understand by what you call the nameless one and the true reality, as distinguished from the unreal.

34. Vasishtha replied:—It is proper for all good and virtuous people who are dispassionate and dissatisfied with the world, to have recourse to wise and holy men, and argue with them regarding the course of nature, in order to get over the ocean of this miserable world.

35. It is proper also for intelligent persons, to be in diligent search after the passionless and unselfish men wherever they may be found; and particularly to find out and reverence such of them, as are possessed with the knowledge of the soul, and are kindly disposed to impart their spiritual knowledge to others.

36. The acquisition of such a holy sage, takes away one half of one’s temporal and spiritual ignorance; by setting him on the first and best step of divine knowledge. (The subsequent stages of yoga, are based upon the initiatory step or stage).

37. Thus half of one’s spiritual gloom being dispelled by association with the holy; the remaining two fourths are removed, by religious learning and one’s own faith and devotion.

38. Whenever any desire of any enjoyment whatever, is 55carefully suppressed in one’s self by his own endeavour; it is called his self-exertion, which destroys one fourth of spiritual ignorance.

39. So it is the society of the holy, the study of Sástras and one’s own exertion, which tend to take away one’s sins, and it is done by each of these singly or all of these conjointly, either by degrees or at once and at the same time.

40. Whatever there remains either as something or nothing at all, upon the total extinction of ignorance, the same is said to be the transcendent and nameless or unspeakable something or nothing (owing to its being beyond all conception).

41. This is verily the real Brahma, the undestroyed, infinite and eternal one; and which being but a manifestation of the unsubstantial will, is understood as an inexistent blank likewise. By knowing the measureless, immeasurable and unerring being, do you rely in your own nihility of nirvána, and be free from all fear and sorrow. (He who thinks himself as nothing, has no care or fear for anything).

Bhusunda Said:—The universe which contains the totality of existence, and appears as a wide extended sphere; is not in need of any pre-existent place or time as recipients of its substance just as the etherial light (of the twilight), requires no prop or pillar in the heavens for its support. (The simultaneity of the seeming containers—time and space, and their apparent contents—the wide world and the broad light, disproves the priority of the receptacles with regard to their occupants, as it is commonly understood to be. So the verse:—Here there is no container or contained, nothing first or last; But all is one that fills and contains this all. Gloss).

2. The fabrication of this triple world (containing the celestial, terrestrial and infernal regions), is the mere thought or working of the mind; and all this is more quiet and calm, more minute and light, and much more translucent than the odor residing in the air.

3. The world is a wondrous phenomenon of the intellect, which though it is as minute as a particle of fragrance borne by the wind; appears yet as big as a mountain to the sensation of the outward organs of sense. (This is the effect of the deception of the senses).

4. Every one (animal being) views and thinks the world, in the same form and light as it presents unto him; just as the operations of the mind and visions in a dream, appear as they occur to their recipients and to no other besides. (The deceptive senses and dreams, depict objects in different aspects to different persons).

5. Here I will instance an old legend, of what happened to 57Indra—the lord of Gods, when he was confined in a minute particle in times of yore.

6. It came to pass once upon a time, that this world grew up as a small fig fruit on a branch of the Yuga tree, in the great arbour of a kalpa age. (The periods of a Yuga and kalpa are represented as a tree and forest by metaphor).

7. The mundane fruit was composed of the three compartments of the earth, sky and infernal regions, containing the gods and demigods of heaven, the hills and living creatures on earth, the marshy lands below, with troops of gnats and flies (fluttering about the fig tree of the world, and representing the diseases and dangers that hover over it).

8. It is a wondrous production of the intellect (which is its architect); and is as high as handsome full-blown buds with the juice of desire (i.e. it is full of all delights, that the heart can desire). It is odorous with all kinds of flavourous fragrances, that we can feel and tempting to the mind by the variety of its savours that are sweet to taste. (Does it allude to the forbidden fruit which was enticing to sight and sweet to taste, and meant the world itself that was to be avoided)?

9. This tree grew upon the Brahma tree (otherwise called the udumvara or fig tree), which was over hung by millions of creepers and orchids; egoism is the stalk of the fruit, which appeared beautiful to sight.

10. It is encompassed around with oceans, seas and arteries, and whose face-light is the principal door. It is salvating the starry heaven above and the moist earth below.

11. It is ripened at the end of the Kalpa age, when it becomes the food of black crows and cuckoos (messengers of darksome death); or if it falls below there is an end of it, by its absorption in the indifferent Brahma.

12. There lived at one time the lord of Gods—the great Indra in that fruit, just as a big mosquito resides in an empty pot in company with the small gnats as their great leader.

13. But this great lord was weakened in his strength and valour by his study of and the lectures of his preceptor on spiritualism; 58which made him a spiritualist, and seer in all past and future matters.

14. It happened once on a time, when the valiant god Náráyana and his heavenly host, had been reposing in their rest; and their leader Indra was so debilitated in his arms; that the demigods rose in open rebellion against God.

15. Then Indra rose with his flashing arms and fire, and fought with the fighting Asuras for a long time; but being at last defeated by the superior strength, he fled away in haste from the field.

16. He ran in all the ten directions, and was pursued by the enemy wherever he fled; he could get no place of rest, as a sinner has no resting place in the next world (but continues to rove about in never ending transmigrations of his soul).

17. Then as the enemy lost sight of him for a moment, he availed to himself of that opportunity; he compressed the thought of his big body in his mind, and became of a minute form on the out-side of himself. (It is the inner thought that moulds the outer body, according to the inner type).

18. He then entered into the womb of an atom, which was glittering amidst the expanse of solar rays; as a bee enters into the cup or seed vessel of a lotus bud, by means of the consciousness of his personal minuteness.

19. He had his instant rest in that state, and then his hope of final bliss in the next; by utter forgetfulness of the warfare, and attainment of the ultimate beatitude of the nirvána torpitude in the end. (All action is warfare, and cessation from it gives peace and rest).

20. He instantly conceived in his imagination, his royal palace in that lotus, and he sat upon his lotiform seat (padmásana) within it, as if he was resting on his own bed.

21. Then Indra otherwise called Hari, being seated in that mansion, saw an imaginary city in it, containing a grand edifice in the midst; with its walls studded with gems, pearls and corals.

22. Hari (the Indra) beheld from within the city, a large country extending about it, and containing many hills and 59villages, pasture grounds for kine, forests and human habitations.

23. Indra then felt the desire of enjoying that country, with all the lands and hills, the seas to their utmost boundaries, as he had formed in his imagination.

24. Shakra (Indra) afterwards conceived the desire, of possessing the three worlds to himself, together with all the earth and ocean, sky and the infernal regions, the heavens, planetary spheres above and the ranges of mountains below.

25. Thus did Indra remain there as the lord of gods, and in possession of all abundance for his enjoyments; and there was born to him afterwards, a son named Kunda of great strength and valour.

26. Then at the end of his life time, this Indra of unblemished reputation, forsook his mortal frame, and became extinct in his nirvána dissolution, as when a lamp is extinguished for want of oil.

27. Kunda reigned over the three worlds (of and like his father), and then having given birth to a boy he departed to his ultimate state of bliss, after expiration of the term of his life.

28. That son also reigned in his time (like the sire), and then departed at the end of his life time, to the holy state of supreme felicity, by leaving a son after him.

29. In this manner a thousand generations of the grandsons of the first Indra, have reigned and passed away in their time; and there is still a prince by name of Ansaka, reigning over the state of the lord of gods.

30. Thus the generations of the lord of immortals, still hold their sovereignty over the imaginary world of Indra; in that sacred particle of sunbeam in empty air, although that atomic particle is continually going to decay and waste in this long course of time (yet the imagination of its existence has laid a firm hold on the minds of their posterity for ever).

Bhusunda continued:—There was one prince born of the race of that Indra; who had also become the lord of gods; He was endowed with prosperity and all good qualities, and devoted to divine knowledge.

2. This prince of Indra’s race, received his divine knowledge from the oral instruction of Vrihaspati (the preceptor of the gods).

3. He knowing the knowable-one, persisted in the course of knowledge as he was taught and being the sovereign lord of gods, he reigned over all the three worlds.

4. He fought against the demigods, and conquered all his foes; he made a hundred sacrifices, and got over the darkness of ignorance by his enlightened mind.

5. He remained long in meditation, having his mind fixed in his cerebral artery, resembling the thread of a tubular stalk of the lotus, and continued to reflect on hundreds of many others matters. (i.e. On the imaginary world and its kingdom and conquests together with many other things).

6. He had once the desire of knowing by the power of his understanding, how he could see the essence of Brahma in his meditation (or how he could have a sight of the nature of God, manifest before him. Gloss).

7. He sat in his solitary retirement, and saw in this silent meditation of his tranquil mind, the disappearance of the concatenation of causes all about and inside himself.

8. He beheld the omnipotent Brahma, as extended in and about all things; and presenting all times and places and existing as all in all, and pervading all things in all places.

619. His hands stretch to all sides, and his feet reach to the ends of the worlds; his face and eyes are on all sides, and his head pierces the spheres; his ears are set in all places, and he endures by encompassing all things every where.

10. He is devoid of all the organs of sense, and yet possest of the powers of all senses in himself; he is the support of all, and being destitute of qualities, is the source and receptacle of all quality. (The qualities of finite bodies are of a finite nature, but the infinite are infinite, eternal and immutable).

11. Unmoved and unmoving by himself, he is moving in and out of all things, as well as moveth them all both internally and externally (that is to say, He is the moving force of dull matter). He is unknowable owing to his minuteness, and appears to be at a distance, though he is so near us.

12. He is as the one sun and moon in the whole universe, and the same land in all the earth; He is the one universal ocean on the globe, and one Meru Mountain (of the sun’s path) all about.

13. He is the pith and gravity of all objects, and he is the one vacuum every where; he is the wide world and the great cosmos, that is common to all.

14. He is the liberated soul of all, and the primary intellect in every place; he is every object everywhere, and beside all things in all places.

15. He is in all pots and huts, in all trees and their coatings; he moves the carts and carriages, and enlivens alike all men and other animals likewise.

16. He is in all the various customs and manners of men, and in all the many modes of their thinking; he resides equally in the parts of an atom, as also in the stupendous frame of the triple world.

17. He resides as pungency in the heart of pepper, as vacuity in the sky; and in his intellectual soul the three worlds, whether they are real entities or mere unrealities.

18. Indra beheld the lord in this manner, and then being liberated from his animal state by the help of his pure understanding; 62he remained all along in the same state of his meditation as before.

19. The magnanimous god sees in his revery, all things united in his meditative mind; and beheld this creation in the same light as it appears to us (as a real entity).

20. He then wandered in his mind all over this creation, and believing himself as the lord of all he saw in it, became the very god Indra; and reigned over the three worlds and their manifold pageantries.

21. Know, O chief of the race of vidyádharas, that the same Indra who was descended of the family of Indras, has been still holding his reign as the lord of gods to this day.

22. He then perceived in his mind, by virtue of his former habit of thinking, the seed of his remembrance sprouting forth with the lotus stalk, wherein he thought to have lain before.

23. As I have related to you of the reign of the former Indra, in the bosom of an atom in the sunbeam; and of the residence of his last generation—the latter Indra, in the hollow fibre of the lotus stalk.

24. So have thousands of other Indras gone by, and are going on still in their fancied realm in the empty sky, in the same manner and mode as observed by their predecessors.

25. So runs the course of nature in ceaseless succession, like the current of a river running onward to the sea; and so do men whether acquainted or not with the divine knowledge, flow on as streams to the abyss of eternity (which is tatpada or state of the Deity).

26. Such is lengthening delusion of the world appearing as true; but vanishing to nothing at the appearance of the light of truth (which is the sight of God in everything).

27. From whatever cause, and in whatever place or time, and in whatever manner this delusion is seen to have sprung, it is made to disappear by knowledge of the same.

28. It is egoism alone, which produces the wonderful appearance of delusion; as the cloud in the sky causes the rain; it spreads itself as a mist, but disappears immediately at the sight of light.

6329. He who has got rid of his belief of the looking and sight of the world (i.e. Of both the subjective and objective, as well as of his action and passion); and has attained the knowledge of self-reflecting soul; and who has placed his belief in one vacuous form of empty air; which is devoid of all properties and beyond all categories, is freed from all option and settled in the only One.

Bhusunda resumed and said:—Wherever there is the thought of egoism of any one, the idea of the world will be found to be inherent in it; as it appeared to Indra within the bosom of the atomic particle.

2. The error of the world (the false conception of its reality), which covers the mind, as the green verdure of grass overspreads the face of the ground; has for its origin the idea of one’s egoism, which takes its root in the human soul.

3. This minute seed of egoism, being moistened with the water of desire, produces the arbor of the three worlds, on the height of Brahma in the great forest of vacuum.

4. The stars are the flowers of this tree, hang on high on the branches of the mountain craigs; the rivers resemble its veins and fibres, flowing with the juicy pith of their waters, and the objects of desire are the fruits of this tree. (The objects of desire are the enjoyments and fruition of life).

5. The revolving worlds, are the fluctuating waves of the water of egoism; and the profluent current of desire, continually supplies with varieties of exquisite symposiums, sweet to the taste of the intellect. (i.e. The pleasures of desire are sweet to the mind, and afford intellectual delight).

6. The sky is the boundless ocean full of etherial waters, and teeming with showering drops of star light in it; plenty and poverty are the two whirlpools in the ocean of the earth, and all our woes are the mountainous waves on its surface. (i.e. The heaven and earth are the two oceans above and below; the one shining with starry light, and the other gliding with waves of woe. So says the Bible:—And God made the 65firmament, to divide the waters above from the waters below. Genesis I).

7. The three worlds are presented as a picture of the ocean, with the upper lights as its froths and foams swimming upon it; the spheres are floating as bubbles upon it, and their belts are as the thick valves of their doors.

8. The surface of the earth is as a hard and solid rock, and the intellect moves as a black crow upon it; and the hurry and bustle of its people, are conformable with the incessant rotation of the globe.

9. The infirmities and errors, old age and death, are as billows gliding on the surface of the sea; and the rising and falling of bodies in it, are as the swelling and dissolving of bubbles in water.

10. Know the world to be a gust of the breath of your egoism, and know it also as a sweet scent proceeding from the lotus like flower of egoism.

11. Know the knowledge of your egoism and that of the objective world, are not two different things; but they are the one and same thing; as the wind and its breath, the water and its fluidity, and the fire and its heat.

12. The world is included under the sense of ego, and the ego is contained in the heart of the world; and these being productive of one another, are reciprocally the container and contained of each other.

13. He who effaces the seed of his egoism from his understanding, by means of his ignoring it altogether; has verily washed off the picture of the world from his mind, by the water of ignorance of it.

14. Know Vidyádhara, there is no such thing as is implied by ego; it is a causeless nothing as the horn of a hare.

15. There is no egoism in the all pervading and infinite Brahma, who is devoid of all desire; and therefore there being no cause nor ground of it, it is never anything in reality.

16. Whatever is nothing in reality, could not possibly have any cause in the beginning of creation; therefore egoism is a nihility, as the son of a barren woman is a nullity in nature.

6617. The want of egoism on the one hand, proves the privation of the world also on the other; thus there remains the Intellect or the one mind alone, in which everything is extinct.

18. From the proof of the absence of ego and the world, the operations of the mind and the sight of visibles, all come to an end, and there remains nothing for thee to care for or fear.

19. Whatever is not is a naught altogether, and the rest are as calm and quiet as nil in existence; knowing this as certain be enlightened, and fall no more to the false error which has no root in nature.

20. Being purged from the stain of fancy, you become as purified and sanctified as the holy lord Siva for ever, and then the sky will seem to thee as a huge mountain, and the vast world will dwindle to an atom. (This is done by two powers of adhyáropa and vyapadesa or expansion or contraction in yoga).

Bhusunda continued:—As I was lecturing in this manner, the chief of the vidyádharas became dull in the consciousness (i.e. unconscious of himself), and fell into the trance of samádhi—anaesthesia.

2. And notwithstanding my repeated attempts, to awaken him from that state (of insensibility); he did not open his eyes to the sight lying before him, but was wholly absorbed in his nirvána-extinction.

3. He attained the supreme and ultimate state, and became enlightened in his soul (by what I had instructed him); and made no other further attempt to know what he sought. (The attempts to know God, besides sravana or attending to the lectures of the guru, are reflection, meditation etc.).

4. (Here Vasishtha said to Ráma:) It is therefore, Ráma, that I related this narrative to exemplify the effect of instruction in pure hearts, where it floats like a drop of oil on the surface of water (i.e. where it does not sink down nor is lost).

5. This instruction consists in forgetting the existence of the ego in the Supreme spirit, this is the best advice and there is no other like this; and this is calculated to give peace and comfort to your soul.

6. But when this advice falls in the soil of evil minds, it is choked up and lost in the end; as the purest pearl falls from the surface of a smooth mirror (or piece of glass).

7. But good advice sticks fast in the calm minds of the virtuous, and it enters into their reasoning souls; as the sunlight enters and shines in the sunstone.

8. Egoism is verily the seed of all worldly misery, as the 68seed of the thorny simul tree grows only prickles on earth; so is meity or the thought that this is mine, the out stretching branch of this tree.

9. First the seed ego, and then its branch of meity or mineness, produce the endless leaves of our desires; and their sense of selfishness, is productive of the burthensome fruits of our woe and misery.

10. Then the vidyádhara said; I understand, O chief of sages, that it is in this manner, that dull people also become long living in this world; and it is this true knowledge, which is the cause of the great longevity of yours and other sages.

11. Those who are pure in their hearts and minds, soon attain to their highest state of fearlessness, after they are once admonished with the knowledge of truth.

12. Vasishtha said:—The chief of the birds of air, spoke to me in this manner on the summit of the Sumeru Mountain; and then held his silence like the mute clouds on the top of Rishyasringa chain. (It is said that the clouds never roar when they rove over this hill).

13. Having taken leave of the sagely bird, I repaired to the abode of the Vidyádhara (in order to learn the truth of the story); and then returned to my place, which was graced by the assemblage of sages.

14. I have thus related to you, O Ráma, the narration of the veteran bird, and the sedateness which was attained by the Vidyádhara with little pain and knowledge. It is now the lapse of the long period of eleven great Yugas, since my said interview with Bhusunda—the veteran chief of the feathered tribe.

Vasishtha said:—It is by means of the knowledge of one’s want of egoism, that the arbor of his desire, which is productive of the fruit of worldliness, and which is fraught with the taste of all kinds of sweet and bitterness; may be checked in its growth.

2. It is by one’s habit of thinking his unegoism, that he comes to view both gold and stone, as well as all sorts of rubbish in the same light; and by being calm and quiet at all events, has never any cause of sorrow at any thing whatsoever.

3. When the cannon-ball of egoism, is let to fly out from the gun of the mind by force of divine knowledge; we are at a loss to know, where the stone of egoism takes its flight.

4. The stone of egoism being flung from the balustrade of the body, by the gigantic force of spiritual knowledge; we know not where this ponderous egoism is driven and lost.

5. After the stone of egoism is flung away, by the great force of the knowledge of Brahma only; we cannot say where this engine of the body (with its boast of egoism in it), is lost forever. (Here are three comparisons of egoism, viz, 1 of a gunshot; 2 of a balustrade stone; 3 of a pebble in a sling).

6. The meaning of ego is frost in the heart of man, and melts away under the sunshine of unegoism; it then flies off in vapour, and then disappears into nothing we know not where.

7. The ego is the juice of the inner part of the body, and the unego is the solar heat without; the former is sucked up by the latter, and forsakes the dried body like a withered leaf, and then flies off where we know not.

8. The moisture of egoism, being sucked up from the leafy 70body of the living, flies by the process of its suction by the solar heat, to the unknown region of endless vacuum.

9. Whether a man sleeps in his bed or sits on the ground, whether he remains at home or roves on rocks, whether he wanders over the land or water, wherever he sits or sleeps or is awake or not:—

10. This formless egoism abides in it, either as gross matter or the subtile spirit, or in some state or other; which though it is afar from it, seems to be united with it. (The true ego of the far distant Divine spirit, seems to be incorporated with the material body).

11. Egoism is seated as the minute seed, in the heart of the fig tree of the body; where it sprouts forth and stretches its branches, composing the different parts of the world. (i.e. The seed of egoism develops itself in the form of the creation, which is a creature of its own).

12. Again the big tree of the body, is contained within the minute seed of egoism; which bursts out in the branches forming the several parts of the universe.

13. As the small seed is seen by every one, to contain within it a large tree, which develops itself into a hundred branches, bearing all their leaves, flowers and abundance of fruits; so doth the big body reside with the atomic seed of egoism, with all its endless parts of corporeal organs and mental faculties, which are discernible to the sight of the intelligent.

14. Egoism is not to be had in the body by reasoning, which points out the mind of everybody, to seek it in the sphere of the vacuous Intellect; the seed of egoism does not spring from the bosom of unreality, and the blunder of the reality of the world, is destroyed by the fire proceeding from the spirituality of the wise.

Vasishtha related:—There is never and nowhere an absolute death or total dissolution of the body together with the mind, soul and egoism; but it is the cessation of the inward imagery of the mind, that is called its quietus.

2. Look at these sights of the Meru and Mandara Mountains, which are born before thy presence; they are not carried to and fro to every body, but are reflected in the minds of all like the flying clouds of autumn in the water of a river.

3. These creations are placed over and above and below and under one another, like the coatings of a plantain tree; and they are either in contact with or detached from one another like clouds in the sky.

4. Ráma said:—Sir, I do not fully comprehend the sound sense of what you say by the words “Look at these flying sights” and therefore I beg to you to explain this clearly unto me.

5. Vasishtha replied:—Know Ráma, that the life contains the mind, and the mind is the container of the worlds within it; as there are various kinds of trees and their several parts, contained in the bosom of a small berry. (And this is meant by one thing being contained within another).

6. After a man is dead, his vital airs fly to and unite with the etherial air; as the liquid water of streams flows to and mixes with the main ocean. (This is by attraction of things of the same kind).

7. The winds of heaven then disperse on all sides, his vital airs together with the imaginary worlds of his life time, which subsisted in the particles of his vital breath.

728. I see the winds of heaven, bearing away the vital airs, together with their contents of the imaginary worlds; and filling the whole space of air with vital breath on all sides.

9. I see the Meru and Mandara Mountains, wafted with the imaginary worlds before me; and you also will observe the same, before the sight of your understanding. (The whole vacuum teeming with life).

10. The etherial airs are full with the vital airs of the dead, which contain the minute particles of mind in them; and these minds again contain the types of the worlds in them, just as the sesame seeds contain the oil in them.

11. As the etherial airs bear the vital airs, which are of the same kind with them (both being airy substances); so are the vital breaths accompanied with particles of the mind (which is equally an airy substance also), these again bear the pictures of the worlds in them, as if they are ingrafted upon them.

12. The same vacuum contains the whole creation and the three worlds with the earth and ocean, all which are borne in it, as the different odors are borne by the winds.

13. All these are seen in the sight of the understanding, and not by the vision of the visual organs; they are the portraiture of our imagination, like the fairy lands we see in our dreams before us.

14. There are many other things, more subtile than the visible atmosphere, and which owing to their existence in our desire or fancy only, are not borne upon the wings of the winds as the former ones. (Though it is said in ordinary speech, that our desires and fancies are borne by our internal humour of váyu or wind).

15. But there are some certain truths, which are derived from the intellect, and are called intellectual principles, which have the power to cause our pleasure and pain, and lead us to heaven or hell: (Such as virtue and vice). (These are the immutable principles of right and wrong, abiding in and proceeding from the intellect).

16. Again our desires are as the shadows of cities, floating 73on the stream of life; and though the current of life is continually gliding away, yet the shadowy desires whether successful or not, ever remain the same. (Lit. are never carried away by the current).

17. The vital breath carries its burden of the world, along with its course to the stillness of endless vacuity; as the breezes bear away the fragrance of flowers, to the dreary desert where they are lost for ever.

18. Though the mind is ever fickle, changeable and forgetful in its nature; yet it never loses the false idea of the world which is inherent in it, as a pot removed to any place and placed in any state, never gets rid of its inner vacuity. (The idea of the world is carried by reminiscence, in every state and stage of the changeful mind).

19. So when the fallacy of the false world has taken possession of the deluded mind, it is alike impossible either to realize or set it at naught, like the form of the formless Brahma.

20. Or if this world is a revolving body, carried about by the force of the winds; yet we have no knowledge of its motion, as when sitting quiet in a boat, though carried afar to the distance of miles by the tide and winds.

21. As men sitting in a boat, have no knowledge of the force which carries the boat forward; so we earthly beings have no idea of the power that is attached to it in its rotatory motion.

22. As a wide extending city, is represented in miniature in a painting at the foot of a column; so is this world contained in the bosom of the minute atom of the mind.

23. A thing however little or insignificant, is taken to be too much and of great importance, by the low and mean; as a handful of paddy is of great value to the little mouse than gems, and a particle of mud to the contemptible frog, than the pearls under the water. (So a particle of the mind is enough for the whole world).

24. Again a trifle is taken as too much, by those who are ignorant of its insignificance; as the learned in the error of their judgement, mistake this visionary world as preparatory 74to their future happiness or misery. (The world being nothing in reality, cannot lead to anything, to real good or evil).

25. The inward belief of something as real good, and of another as positive evil, is a mistake common to the majority of mankind, and to which the learned also are liable, in their conduct in this world. (The wise man is indifferent to every thing, and neither likes nor takes the one, nor hates or rejects the other).

26. As the intelligent and embodied soul, is conscious of every part of the body in which it is confined; so the enlightened living soul—jíva, beholds all the three worlds displayed within itself (as in the God Virát).

27. The unborn and ever lasting God, who is of the form of conscious soul, extending over the infinity of space, has all these worlds, as parts of his all pervading vacuous body.

28. The intelligent and ever living soul (of God) sees the uncreated worlds deeply impressed in itself; as a rod of iron (were it endowed with intelligence), would see the future knives and needles in itself.

29. As a clod of earth, whether endowed with intelligence or not knows the seed which is hidden in it, and which it grows to vegetation afterwards; so doth the ever living soul know the world which is contained in it.

30. As the sensitive or insensitive seed, knows the germ, plant and tree, which it contains within its bosom; so doth the spirit of God, perceive the great arbor of the world conceived in its profoundest womb.

31. As the man having his sight, sees the image of something reflected in a mirror, which the blind man does not; so the wise man sees the world in Brahma, which the ignorant does not perceive (but think the world as distinct from him).

32. The world is nothing except the union of the four categories of time, space, action and substance; and egoism being no way distinct from the predicates of the world, subsists in God who contains the whole in Himself. (God is not predicable by any particular predicate; but is the congeries of all the predicates taken collectively in his nature).

7533. Whatever lesson is inculcated to any body by means of a parable, i.e. whatever thing is signified to some one by a comparison, know that the simile relates to some particular property of the compared object and not in all respects. (So the similitude of iron rod given to god in the sruti and this book, regards only its material causality, and not its insensibility with the sensible spirit of God).

34. Whatever is seen to be moving or unmoving here in this world; is the vivarta or expanded body of the living soul, without any alteration in its atomic minuteness. (Nature is the body, and God the soul. Pope).

35. Leaving the intelligence aside (which is wanting in created objects); and taking the force only (which actuates all nature); we find no difference of this physical force from the giver of the force.

36. Again whatever alteration, is produced in the motion or option of anything or person, at any time or place or in any manner; is all the act of that Divine Intellect.

37. It is the intellect which infuses in the mind the power of its option, volition, imagination and the like; because none of these can spring as a sprout in the mind, which is without intelligence and without an intelligent cause of it.

38. Whatever desires and fancies, rise in the minds of the unenlightened; are not of the nature of the positive will or decree of the Divine Mind, owing to the endless variety and mutuality of human wishes.

39. The desires rising in the minds of the enlightened, are as they were no desires and never had their rise; because—

40. All thoughts and desires being groundless, they are as false as the idle wishes of boys; for who has ever obtained the objects of his dream? (or that he has beheld in his dream)?

41. Sankalpa with its triple sense of thought, desire and imagination, is impressed by the intellect on the living soul (which is the image of God) from its past reminiscence; and though we have a notion of this ideal soul, yet it is as untrue and unsubstantial as a shadow; but not so the original Intellect, which is both real and substantial.

7642. He who is freed from the error of taking the unreal world for real, becomes as free as the god Siva himself; and having got rid of the corporeal body, becomes manifest in his spiritual form.

43. The imagination of the ignorant, whirls about the worlds, as the wind hurls the flying cotton in the air; but they appear to be as unmoved as stones to the wise, who are not led away by their imagination.

44. So there are multitudes of worlds, amidst many other things in the vast womb of vacuum which nobody can count; some of which are united with one another in groups, and others that have no connection with another.

45. The supreme intellect being all in all, manifests itself in endless forms and actions, filling the vast space of infinity, some of which are as transient as rain drops or bubbles in air and water, which quickly burst out and disappear; and others appearing as the great cities (of gods &c.), situated in the heart of the Infinite one.

46. Some of these are as durable as rocks, and others are continually breaking and wearing out; some appearing as bright as with their open eyes, and others as dark as with their closed eyelids; some of these are luminous to sight and others obscured under impenetrable darkness; thus the bosom of the intellect resembling the vast expanse of the ocean, is rolling on with the waves of creation to all eternity.

47. Some though set apart are continually tending towards another; as the waters of distant rivers are running to mix with those of seas and ocean; and as the luminous bodies of heaven, appearing together to brighten its sphere.

Ráma said:—Tell me sir, regarding the nature of the living soul, and the manner of its assuming its different forms; and tell me also its original form, and those which it takes at different times and places.

2. Vasishtha replied:—The infinite intelligence of God, which fills all space and vacuum; takes of its own will a subtile and minute form, which is intelligible under the name of Intellect; and it is this which is expressed by the term living soul—jíva or zoa.

3. Its original form is neither that of a minute atom, nor a bulky mass; not an empty vacuity, nor anything having its solidity. It is the pure intellect with consciousness of itself, it is omnipresent and is called the living soul. (It is neither the empty space, nor anything contained therein).

4. It is the minutest of the minute, and the hugest of the huge; it is nothing at all, and yet the all, which the learned designate as the living soul. (The preceding one is a negative proposition, and this an affirmative one).

5. Know it as identic with the nature, property and quality, of any object whatever that exists any where; It is the light and soul of all existence, and selfsame with all, by its engrossing the knowledge of everything in itself. (Because nothing is existent in reality but in its idea, and the soul having all ideas in itself, is identic with all of them).

6. Whatever this soul thinks in any manner, of anything at any place or time, it immediately becomes the same by its notion thereof. (i.e. Being full with the idea of a thing, it is 78said to be identified with the same). (The collective soul becomes all whatever it thinks or wills, as the soul of God; but the individual soul thinks as it becomes at any place or time—as the soul of man or any particular being. Gloss).

7. The soul possesses the power of thinking, as the air has its force in the winds; but its thoughts are directed by the knowledge of things (that it derives by means of the senses); and not by the guidance of anyone, as the appearance of ghosts to boys.

8. As the existent air appears to be inexistent, without the motion of the wind; so the living soul desisting from its function of thinking, is said to be extinct in the Supreme Deity.

9. The living soul is misled to think of its individuality as the ego, by the density or dullness of its intellect; and supposes itself to be confined within a limited space of place and time, and with limited powers of action and understanding. (Thus the infinite soul mistakes itself for a finite being, by the dulness of its understanding).

10. Being thus circumscribed by time and space, and endowed with substance and properties of action &c., it assumes to itself an unreal form or body, with the belief of its being or sober reality. (Thus the incorporeal soul, is incorporated in a corporeal frame).

11. It then thinks itself to be enclosed in an ideal atom; as one sees himself in his dream to be involved in his unreal death.

12. And as one finds in its mind his features and the members of his body, to another form in his dream; so the soul forgets her intellectual entity in her state of ignorance, and becomes of the same nature and form, as she constantly thinks upon. (It forgets its pure spiritual form, and becomes a dull material body of some kind).

13. Thinking itself to be thus transformed to a gross and material form, as that of Virát the macrocosm (who combines the whole material universe in himself); it views itself as bright and spotted, as the disk of the moon with the black spot upon it.

7914. It then finds in its person resembling the lunar disk, the sudden union of the five senses of perception, appearing in him of themselves.

15. These five senses are then found to have the five organs of sensation for their inlets, by which the soul perceives the sensation of their respective objects.

16. Then the Purusha or first male power known as Virát, manifests himself in five other forms said to be the members of his person; and these are the sun, the sides, water, air, and the land, which are the objects of five senses said before. He then becomes of endless forms according to the infinity of objects of his knowledge: (i.e. the thoughts in this mind). He is thus manifested in his objective forms, but is quite unknown to us in his subjective or causal form, which is unchangeable and undecaying.

17. He sprang up at first from the supreme being, as its mental energy or the mind; and was manifest in the form of the calm and clear firmament, with the splendour of eternal delight.

18. He was not of the five elemental forms, but was the soul of the five elements, he is called the Virát Purusha—the macrocosm of the world, and the supreme lord of all. (He was the collective body of all individual ones).

19. He rises spontaneously of himself, and then subsides in himself; he expands his own essence all over the universe, and at last contracts the whole in himself.

20. He rose in a moment with his power of volition, and with all his desires in himself; he rises of his own will at first, and after lasting long in himself, dissolves again in himself.

21. He is the selfsame one with the mind of God, and he is the great body of the material world; and his body is called the puryashtaka or container of the eight elementary principles, as also the átiváhika or of the spiritual form.

22. He is as the subtile and gross air, manifest as the sky, but invisible as the subtile ether; he is both within and as well as without everything, and is yet nothing in himself.

8023. His body consists of eight members, viz—the five senses, the mind, the living principle and egoism, together with the different states of their being and not being, i.e., of their visible and invisible form (such as outward and inward organs of perception &c.).

24. He (in the form of Brahmá), sang at first the four vedas with his four mouths; he determined the significations of words, and it was he who established the rules of conduct, which are in vogue to this time.

25. The high and boundless heaven, is the crown of his head; and the lower earth is the footstool of his feet; the unbounded sky is his capacious belly, and the whole universe is the temple over his body.

26. The multitudes of worlds all about, are the members of his body on all sides; the waters of seas are the blood of the scars upon his body; the mountains are his muscles, and the rivers and streams are the veins and arteries of his body.

27. The seas are his blood vessels, and the islands are the ligatures round his persons; his arms are the sides of the sky, and the stars are the hairs on his body.

28. The forty-nine winds are its vital airs, the orb of the sun is its eye-ball, while its heat is the fiery bile inside its belly.

29. The lunar orb is the sheath of his life, and its cooling beams are the humid humours of his body; his mind is the receptacle of his desires, and the pith of his soul is the ambrosia of his immortality.

30. He is the root of the tree of the body, and the seed of the forest of actions; he is the source of all existence, and he is as the cooling moonlight diffusing delight to all beings by the heating beams of that balmy planet oshadhísa.

31. The orb of the moon, is said in the sruti as the lord of life, the cause of the body and thoughts and actions of all living beings (by growing the vegetable food for their subsistance and sustenance of their lives).

32. It is from this moon like Virát, that contains all vitality in himself, that all other living beings in the universe take 81their rise; hence the moon is the container of life, mind, action and the sweet ambrosia of all living beings.

33. It is the will or desire of Virát, that produced the gods Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva from himself; and all the celestial deities and demons, are the miraculous creation of his mind.

34. It is the wonderful nature of the intelligent Intellect, that whatever it thinks upon in its form of an infinitesimal atom, the same appears immediately before it in its gigantic form and size.

35. Know Ráma, the whole universe to be seat of the soul of Virát (i.e. the whole universe to be teeming with life), and the five elements to compose the five component parts of his body. (Whose body is all nature and whose soul is God).

36. Virát that shines as the collective or universal soul of the world, in the bright orb of the moon, diffuses light and life to all individuals by spreading the moonbeams which produces the vegetable food for the supportance and sustenance of living beings.

37. The vegetable substances, which supply the animal bodies with their sustenance; and thereby produce the life of living beings; produce also the mind which becomes the cause of the actions and future births of persons by its efforts towards the same.

38. In this manner a thousand viráts and hundreds of Mahákalpa periods have passed away; and, there many such still existing and yet to appear, with varieties of customs and manners of peoples in different ages and climes.

39. The first and best and supremely blest Virát—the male Deity, resides in this manner of our conception of him, and indistinct in his essence from the state of transcendent divinity; with his huge body extending beyond the limits of space and time. (This Virát or Brahmá is the Demiurgus of platonic philosophy).

Vasishtha continued:—This primary Purusha or the Male agent—Virát, is a volitive principle; and whatever he wills to do at anytime, the same appears instantly before him in its material form of the five elements.

2. It is this will, O Ráma! that the sages say to have become the world; because by its being intent upon producing the same, it became expanded in the same form. (The will of the Deity is the deed itself).

3. Virát is the cause of all things in the world, which came to be produced in the same form as their material cause. (Because the product is alike its producing cause, being a fac-simile of the same).

4 As the great Virát is collectively the aggregate of all souls, so is he distributed likewise into the individual soul of every body. (Hence every soul knowing itself to be a particle of the Divine, cannot think itself as otherwise).

5. The same Virát is manifest in the meanest insect as also in the highest Rudra, in a small atom as in the huge hill, and expands itself as the seed vessel to a very large tree (all which are mistaken as parts of the illusive world).

6. The great Virát is himself the soul of every individual, from the creeping insect to the mighty Rudra of air; and his infinite soul extends even to atoms, that are sensible and not insensible of themselves.

7. In proportion as Virát expands and extends his soul to infinity, so he fills the bodies of even the atomic animalcules with particles of his own essence.

8. There is nothing as great or small in reality in the 83world, but everything appears to be in proportion as it is filled and expanded by the Divine spirit.

9. The mind is derived from the moon, again the moon has sprung from the mind; so doth life spring from life and the fluid water flows from the congealed snow and ice and vice versa. (So there is nothing as greater or less or as the source and its outlet).

10. Life is but a drop of the seminal fluid, distilled as a particle by the amorous union of parents. (This life being transmitted from generation to generation, there is no one greater or less than another).

11. This life then reflects in itself, and derives the properties of the soul, and likens it in the fulness of its perfections. (Hence the soul and life are identified to one and the same principle by many).

12. The living soul has then the consciousness of itself, and of its existence as one pure and independent soul; but there is no cause whatever, as to how it comes to think itself a material being composed of the five elements.

13. It is through opposition of nature that leads one into error, but in fact nature ever remains the same; as wrong interpretation of language imbues bad ideas whereas character remains the same.

14. The living soul is conscious of its selfexistence, by its knowledge of living by itself; it is the instinct of the perception of things by the mind, and not merely as the breath of life or external air, which is devoid of consciousness.

15. But being beset by the frost of ignorance, and confined to the objects of sense, the living soul is blinded of its consciousness and is converted to the breathing soul or vital life, and so loses the sight of its proper course.

16. Being thus deluded by the illusion of the world, the soul sees the duality instead of its unity, and being converted to the breathing of vital life, it is lost to the sight of the soul which is hidden under it.

17. We remain confined to this world of ignorance, as long 84we enjoy the idea of ego; but as soon as we give up the idea of ego, we become a free man.

18. Therefore O Ráma! When you will be able to know that there is no salvation and confinement in this world, as well as no sat and asat, then and there you will be a true free man.

Vasishtha continued:—The wise man must always conduct himself wisely, and not with mere show or affectation of wisdom; because the ignorant even are preferable to the affected and pretended lovers of learning. (According to the maxim which says that, if the show of anything be good for anything, surely the Reality must be better).

2. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, what is meant by true wisdom, and by the show or affectation of it; and what is the good or bad result of either. (i.e. What kind of men they are, their signs and their respective ends).

3. Vasishtha replied:—He who reads the sástras, and practices his learning as a practitioner for earning his livelihood, without endeavouring to investigate into the principles of his knowledge, is called a friend to learning.

4. Whose learning is seen to be employed in busy life only, without showing its true effect in the improvement of the understanding; such learning being but an art or means of getting a livelihood, its possessor is called a fellow of learning; (and no doctor in it).

5. He who is satisfied with his food and dress only, as the best gain of his learning; is known as an amateur and novice in the art of explaining the sástra (or as mere teachers and pedagogues).

6. He who persists in the performance of his righteous and ceremonial acts, as ordained by law (Srouta sástra) with an object of fruition, is termed a probationer in learning, and is near about to be crowned with knowledge.

7. The knowledge of the soul (spiritual knowledge), is reckoned 86as the true knowledge; all other knowledge is merely a semblance of it, being void of the essential knowledge (necessary for mankind).

8. Those who without receiving the spiritual knowledge, are content with bits of their secular learning; all their labour is in vain in this world, and they are styled as mere noviciates in learning.

9. Ráma, you must not rest here with your heart’s content, unless you can rest in the peace of your mind, with your full knowledge of the knowable one; you must not remain like a novice in learning, in order to enjoy the fruitions of this deleterious world. (Here all pleasure is palpable pain).

10. Let men work honestly on earth to earn their bread, and let them take their food for sustenance of their lives; let them live for the inquiry after truth, and let them learn that truth, which is calculated to prevent their return to this miserable world.

Vasishtha resumed:—The man who by his knowledge of the knowable one, hath placed his reliance in him; who hath set his mind to its pristine purity, by purging it from its worldly propensities, and has no faith in the merit of acts; is one who is called the truly wise. (This chapter is in answer to Ráma’s question about who is a wise man &c.).

2. The learned who knowing all kinds of learning, and being employed in acts, yet observe their indifference in every thing, are called to be truly wise. (It is wisdom to act, and not expect).

3. He whose heart is observed by the wise, to retain its coldness in all his acts and efforts; and whose mind is unaffectedly calm and quiet at all times; is said to be the truly wise man.

4. The sense of one’s liberation from the doom of birth and death, is the true meaning of the word knowledge; or else the art of procuring simple food and raiment, is the practice of artificers only.

5. He is styled a wise man, who having fallen in the current of his transactions, remains without any desire or expectation, and continues with as vacant a heart as the empty air.

6. The accidents of life come to pass, without any direct cause and to no purpose; and what was neither present nor expected, comes to take place of its own accord. (All accidents are caused by an unknown and unforeseen fate or chance).

7. The appearance or disappearance of an event or accident 88proceeds from causes quite unknown to us, and these afterwards become causes of the effects produced by them.

8. Who can tell what is the cause of the absence of horn in hares, and the appearance of water in the mirage, which cannot be found out or seen at the sight of those objects.

9. Those who explore in the causality of the want of horns in hares, may well expect to embrace the necks of the sons and grandsons of a barren woman.

10. The cause of the appearance of the unreal phenomena of the world to our sight, is no other than our want of right sight (i.e. our ignorance), which presents these phantoms to our view; and which disappear at a glance of our acute vision (of reason).

11. The living (or human) soul appears as the Supreme spirit, when it is viewed upon by the sight of our blended intellect; but no sooner does the light of Divine intellect dawn in our minds, than the living or animal soul dwindles into nothing.

12. The insensible and unconscious Supreme soul, becomes awakened to the state of the living soul; just as the potential mango of winter, becomes the positive mango fruit in the genial spring.

13. The intellect being awakened, becomes the living soul; which in its long course of its living, becomes worn out with age and toil, and passes into many births in many kinds of beings (animal, vegetable as well as insensible objects).

14. Wise men that are possessed of their intellectual sight, look internally within themselves in the recesses of their hearts and minds; without looking at the lookables without, or thinking of anything or many efforts whatever; but move on with the even course of their destiny, as the water flows on its course to the ocean of eternity.

15. They who have come to the light of their transcendent vision, fix their sight to brighter views beyond the sphere of visibles; and discern the invisible exposed to their view.

16. They who have come to the vision of transcendent light (the glory of God), have their slow and silent motion like that 89of a hidden water course; owing to their heedlessness of everything in this world.

17. They who are regardless of the visibles and thoughtless of the affairs of the world, are like those that disentangled from their snares; and they are truly wise, who meddle with their business as freely, as the free airs of heaven gently play with and move the leaves of trees.

18. They who have come to sight of the transcendent light, athwart the dizzy scenes of mortal life; are not constrained to the course of this world, as seafarers are not to be pent up in shallow and narrow pools and streams. (Sailors are glad to be in the wide ocean, than to ply in the waters of inland creeks).

19. They that are slaves of their desire (of enjoyment in this and next life), are bound to the thraldom of works ordained by law and sruti; and thus pass their lives in utter ignorance of truth. (Hence knowledge and practice are opposed to one another, the one being a state of bondage for some frail good and gain, and the other of freedom and lasting bliss).

20. The bodily senses fall upon carnal pleasures, as vultures pounce upon putrid carrion; curb and retract them therefore with diligence, and fix thy mind to meditate on the state of Brahma and the soul.

21. Know that Brahma is not without the creation, as no gold is without its form and reflection; but keep yourself clear from thoughts of creation and reflexion, and confine your mind to the meditation of Brahma, which is replete with perfect bliss.

22. Know the nature of Brahma to be as inscrutable, as the face of the universe is indiscernible, in the darkness of the chaotic state at the end of a Yuga age; when there was no appearance of anything, nor distinction of conduct and manners. (See Manu’s institutes I. 2).

23. And the elements of production existing in the consciousness of divine nature, were in their quiescent agitation in the divine spirit; as the movements of flimsy vapours amidst the darkness of an immovable and wide spreading cloud. (So 90are the fickle thoughts of the firm mind, and the moving engines of the fixed machine).

24. And as the particles of water are in motion, in a still pond and in the standing pool; so are the changing thoughts of the changeless soul, and so the motions of the element bodies in unchanging essence and nature of God.

25. As the universal and undivided sky and space, take the names of the different sides of heaven (without having any name or side of its own); so the undivided and partless Brahma, being one and same with the creation, is understood as distinct and different from it.

26. The world contains the egoism, as the ego contains the world in it; they contain the one within the other, as the coats of the plantain tree contain and are contained under one another.

27. The living soul or jíva being possessed of its egoism, sees its internal world (which lies in its egoism), through the pores of the organs of sense, as lying without it; in the same manner, as the mountains look upon the lakes issuing out of its caverns, as if they outward things altogether. (So the mental and internal world appears as a visibly external phenomenon).

28. So when the living soul sees itself by mistake, to any thing in the world (i.e. in the light of an object); it is the same as one takes a ball or bar of gold, for an ornament which was or is to be made of it. (So the soul residing in any body at anytime, is not that body itself but the indwelling power thereof).

29. Hence they that are acquainted with the soul, and are liberated in their life time (or become jívanmukta); never think themselves to be born or living or dying at any time (though they are thought and looked upon as such by others. The soul being eternal and unchangeable).

30. Those that are awakened to the sight of the soul, are employed in the actions of life without looking at them; (without taking heed of them in their hearts); just as a house-holder 91discharges his domestic duties, while his mind is fixed at the milk pot in the cowstall.

31. As the God Virát is situated with his moon like appearance, in the heart of the universal frame, so does the living soul reside in the heart of every individual body like a little or large dew drop, according to the smallness or bigness of the corporeal body.

32. This false and frail body believed to be a solid reality, on account of its tripartite figure; and is mistaken for the ego and soul, owing to the intelligence that is displayed and dwells in it.

33. The living soul is confined like a silkworm, in the cell of its own making Karma-Kosha, by acts of its past life, and resides with its egoism in the seed of its parents, as the floral fragrance dwells in the honey cups of flowers.

34. The egoism residing in the seminal seed, spreads its intelligence throughout the body from head to foot; as the moon-beams are scattered throughout the circumference of the whole universe.

35. The soul stretches out the fluid of its intelligence, through the openings of its organs of sense; and this being carried to a sides through the medium of air, extends all over the three worlds, as the vapour and smoke fill and cover the face of the sky.

36. The body is full of sensibility, both in its inner as well as outer parts; but it is in the viscera of the heart, where our desires (vásaná) and egoism (abhimána) are deeply seated.

37. The living soul is composed of its desires only, and consists of and subsists under its hearty wishes alone, the same soon come out of themselves from within the heart, and appear on the outside in the outward conduct of the person. (Whatever is in the heart, the same appears also in action).

38. The error of egoism is never to be suppressed, by any other means whatsoever; save by one’s unmindfulness (nis-chitta) of himself, and fulness of divine presence (Brahmai karasya) in his calm and quiet soul.

9239. Though dwelling on your present thoughts, yet you must rely in your reflection of the vacuous Brahma; by suppression of your egoism by degrees and your self-controul betimes.

40. They who have known the soul, manage themselves here without fostering their earthly thoughts anymore; and remain as silent images of wood, without looking at or thinking of any thing at all.

41. He who has less of earthly thoughts in him, is said to be liberated in the world; and though living in it, he is as clear and free in his mind as the open air (no earthly affections, tie down his rising soul).

42. The egoism which is bred in the pith, grows into intelligence extending from head to foot; and circulates throughout the whole body, as the sun beams pervade all over the sphere of heaven.

43. It becomes the sight of the eyes, the taste of the tongue and hearing in the ears; then the five senses being fastened to the desires in the heart, plunge the ego into the sea of sensuality.

44. Thus the omnipresent intellect, becomes the mind after losing its purity; and is employed with one or other of the senses, as the common moisture of the earth, grows the sprout in the vernal season.

45. He who thinks on the various objects of the senses, without knowing their unreality and the reality of the only one; and does not endeavour for his liberation here, has no end of his troubles in life. (Because sensible objects, afford no intellectual or spiritual happiness).

46. That man reigns as an emperor, who is content with any kind of food and raiment; and with any sort of bedstead at any place. (And is not confined to any particular mode of life).

47. Who with all his desires of the heart, is indifferent to all the outward objects of desire; who with his vacant mind is full with his soul, and being as empty vacuum is filled with the breath of life.

9348. Who whether he is sitting or sleeping, or going anywhere or remaining unmoved, continues as quiet as in his sleeping state; and though stirred by any one, he is not awakened from his slumber of nirvána, in which his mind and its thoughts, are all drowned and have become extinct. (This is the state of the sixth stage of Yoga meditation).

49. Consciousness though common to all, resides yet in each breast, like fragrance in flowers and flavour in fruits.

50. It is self-consciousness only, that makes an individual person, and its extinction is said to form the wide world all about; but being confined to the soul or one’s self, it vanishes the sight of the world from view. (i.e. The subjective consciousness is the soul or self, and its objectivity makes the world; and this is the abstract of this doctrine).

51. Be unconscious of the objects on earth; and remain insensible of all your prosperity and affluence: make your heart as hard as impenetrable as stone, if you will be happy forever.

52. O righteous Ráma! convert the feeling of your heart to unfeelingness, and make your body and mind as insensible as the hardest stone (upala or opal).

53. Of all the positive and negative acts, of the wise and unwise sets of men, there is nothing that makes such a marked difference between them, as those proceeding from the desire of the one, and those from want of the desire of the other.

54. The result of the desired actions of the unwise, is their stretching out of the world before them; while that of the acts done without desire by the wise, serves to put an end to the world before them. (The acts of desire produce repeated births in the world, while the other puts an end to the future transmigrations of the soul).

55. All visibles are destructible, and those that are destroyed come to be renewed to life; but that which is neither destroyed nor resuscitated, is thyself—thy very soul.

56. The knowledge of existence (of the world), is without its foundation; and though it is thought to be existent, it is not 94found to be so in reality; it is as the water in the mirage, which does not grow the germ of the world.

57. The right knowledge of things, removes the thought of egoism from the mind; and though it may be thought of in the mind, yet it takes no deep root in the heart, as the burnt seed or grain does not sprout forth in the ground.

58. The man that does his duties or not, but remains passionless and thoughtless and free from frailty; has his rest in the soul, and his nirvána is always attendant upon him.

59. Those who are saintly calm and quiet by the controul of their mind, and by suppression of the bonds (appetites) for enjoyments; but not having weakened (governed) their natures, have in their hearts a mine of evils.

60. The wise soul is full of light like the cloudless sky, and is distinguished from others by its brightness; but the same soul which is alike in all, appears as dim as the evening twilight in the ignorant.

61. As a man seated in this place, sees the light of heaven (heavenly bodies), as coming to him from a great distance, and filling the intermediate space; so the light of the Supreme soul fills and reaches to all.

62. The infinite and invisible intellect, which is as wondrous as the clear vacuum of the sky; conceives and displays this wonderful world, within the infinitude of its own vacuity.

63. The world appears to the learned and unerring, and those who have got rid of the error of the world, and rest in their everlasting tranquility, as a consumed and extinguished lamp; while it seems to all common people, to be placed in the air, by the will of God and for the enjoyment of all. (The two opposite views of the world with the learned and ignorant).

Vasishtha said:—(I have delivered to you my lectures) on dispassionateness, inappetence and resignation of worldly desires; rise therefore and go beyond the material world after the example of one Manki (as related herein—below).

2. There lived once on a time before a Bráhmana named Manki, who was applauded for his devotion and steadfastness to holy vows.

3. It happened at one time, that I was coming down from the vault of heaven, upon an invitation from your grandfather Aja on some particular occasion.

4. As I then came to wander on the surface of the earth, in order to reach at the realm of your grandsire; I happened to meet before me a vast desert, with the burning sunshine over it.

5. It was a dreary waste without its boundary on any side, filled with burning sands and obscured by grey and flying dust over it; and marked by a few scattered hamlets here and there.

6. The extended waste appeared as the boundless and spotless immensity of Brahma, by its unrestricted vacuity, howling winds, burning heat and light, its seeming water in the sand, and untrodden ground resting in peace.

7. It seemed as delusive as the appearance of avidyá or illusion itself; by the deceptive waters of mirage upon the sand, by its dulness and empty space and the mist overhanging on all sides of it.

8. As I was wandering along this hollow and sandy wilderness, 96I saw a wayfarer sauntering before me and muttering to himself in the travail of his wearisome journey.

9. The Traveller said:—O the powerful sun! That afflicts me with his blazing beams, as much as the company of evil-minded men is for our annoyance.

10. The sunbeams seem to pour down fire on earth, and melt down the pith and marrow of my body and bones; as they have been drying up the leaves and igniting the forest trees (for a conflagration).

11. Therefore it behoves me to repair to yonder hamlet, to allay the weariness of my journey, and recover my strength and spirits for travelling onward. (So it is said:—the shady bower invites the dry, and drives out the cooled).

12. So saying, he was about to proceed towards the village, which was an habitation of the low caste Kirátas. (The kerrhoids of Ptolemy, and the present Kerántes of the Himalayas). When I interrupted him by saying:—

13. Vasishtha said:—I hail thee, O thou passenger of the sandy desert, and may all be well with thee, that art my fellow traveller on the way, and art so good looking and passionless:—

14. O traveller of the lower earth! who have long lived in the habitations of men, and have not found your rest, how is it now that you expect to have it, in this solitary abode of this mean people?

15. You can have no rest at the abode of the vile people in yonder village, which is mostly peopled by the Pamara villains; thirst is not appeased, but increased by a beverage of briny water. (So it is said:—The unquenchable appetite of the greedy, is never quenched by nourishment, but it nourishes it the more, as the fuel and butter serve to kindle and feed the fire).

16. These huts and hamlets shelter the cowardly cow-herds (Pallava Gopas) under them, and them that are afraid to walk in the paths of men, as the timid deer are averse to rove beyond their own track. (So these solitary swains are as the savage beasts of the forests).

17. They have no stir or agitation of reason, nor any flash 97of understanding or mental faculties in them; they are not afraid of or averse to base actions, but remain and move on as stone-mills and wheels:—

18. Their manliness consists in the emotions of their passions and affections, and in exhibitions of the signs of their cupidity and aversion, and they delight mostly in actions, that appear pleasant at the time being or present moment. (They are occupied with the present only, being forgetful of the past and careless of the future).

19. As there is no appearance of a body of rainy clouds, over the dry and parched lands of the desert, so there is no shadow of pure and cooling knowledge ever stretched out on the minds of these people. (i.e. They have never come under the benign influence of civilization).

20. Rather dwell in a dark cave as a snake, or remain as a blind worm in the bosom of a stone; or limp about as a lame stag in the barren desert, than mix in company of these village people.

21. These rude rustics resemble the potions of poison, that are mixed with honey; they are sweet to taste for a moment, but prove deadly at last. (Such are the robbers of deserts and woods).

22. Again these villainous villagers are as rude as the rough winds, which are blowing with gusts of dust amidst the shattered huts, built with grassy turfs and tufts of the dried leaves of trees. (The word trina means straw also or a straw built hut).

23. Being thus spoken unto by me, the traveller felt himself as glad, as if he was bathed in ambrosial showers.

24. The passenger said:—Who art thou sir, with thy magnanimous soul, that seemest to me to be full and perfect in thyself, and full of Divine spirit in thy soul. Thou lookest at the hustle of the bustle of the world, as a passer is unconcerned with the commotion of the villages beside his way.

25. Hast thou sir, drunk the ambrosial draught of the gods, that gave thee thy Divine knowledge? and art infused with the spirit of the sovran Virát, that is quite apart from the 98plenum it fills, and is quite full with its entire voidness (stretches through all, and unmixed with any).

26. I see thy soul to be as void and yet as full as his, and as still and yet as moving as the Divine spirit; it is all and not all what exists, and something yet nothing itself.

27. It is quiet and comely, shining and yet unseen; it is inert and yet full of force and energy, it is inactive with all its activity and action; and such soul is thine. (These antithetic attributes of the Divine soul, are applied objectively to that of Vasishtha in the second person, as they are subjectively put to one’s ownself in the first person in many other places. Thus in the Bhagavad Gítá where Krishna assumes to himself the title of Brahma and says “Resort to Me alone” so says the Sufi Mansur “I am the true one” so says Hastamulaka in his celebrated rhapsody. “I am that eternal that is conceived by every one.”)

28. Though now journeying on earth, you seem to range far above the skies; you are supportless, though supported on a sound basis (of the body or Brahma). (i.e. The spirit and mind range freely every where, though they appear to be confined within the limits of the body, or to proceed from and rest in the eternal essence of Brahma).

29. Thou art not stretched over the objects, and yet no object subsists without thee; thy pure mind like the beauteous orb of the moon, is full of the nectarous beams of immortality. (The moon is called the lord of medicinal plants, having the virtues of conferring life and health to the body).

30. Thou shinest as the full-moon, without any of her digits or blackish spots in thee; thou art cooling as the moon-beams, and full of ambrosial juice as the disk of that watery planet.

31. I see the existence and non-existence of the world, depend upon thy will, and thy intellect contains in it the revolving world, as the germ of a tree contains within it the would be fruit.

32. Know me sir, as a Bráhmana sprung from the sage 99Sandilya’s race; my name is Manki, and am bent on visiting places of pilgrimage.

33. I have made very long journeys, and seen many holy places in my peregrinations all about; and have now after long bent my course to revisit my native home. (The toils being over, the traveller returns home, and there to die. Goldsmith).

34. But my mind is so sick of and averse to the world, that I hesitate to return to my home, after having seen the lives of men passing away as flashes of lightening from this world.

35. Deign now sir, to give me a true account of yourself, as the minds of holymen are as deep and clear as limpid lakes.

36. When great men like yourself show their kindness, to one as mean as myself at the first sight of him, his heart is sure to glow with love and gratitude to them, as the lotus buds are blown (by the premature gleams of the rising sun), and are led to be hopeful of their favour towards him.

37. Hence I hope sir, that you will kindly remove the error, which is bred in me by my ignorance of the delusions of this tempting world. (Lit. I believe you are able to do so &c.).

38. Vasishtha replied:—Know me, O wise man, to be Vasishtha—the sage and saint, and an inhabitant of the etherial region; and am bound to this way, on some errand of the sagely king (Aja by name).

39. I tell you sir, not to be disheartened at your ignorance, as you have already come to the path of wisdom, and very nearly got over the ocean of the world, and arrived at the coast of transcendental knowledge.

40. I see you have come to the possession of the invaluable treasure, of your indifference to worldly matters; for this kind of speech and sentiments, and the sedateness of disposition which you have displayed, can never proceed from a worldling, and bespeak your high-mindedness.

41. Know that as a precious stone is polished, by gentle abrasion of its rubbish; so the mind comes to its reasoning, by the rubbing off of the dross of its prejudice.

42. Tell me what you desire to know, and how you want to 100abandon the world; it is in my opinion done by practice of what one is taught by his preceptor, or by interrogatories of what he does not know or understand.

43. It is said that whoso has a mind, to go across the doom of future birth or transmigration of his soul, should be possessed of good and pure desires in his mind, and an understanding inclined to reasoning under the direction of his spiritual guide. Such a person is verily entitled to attain to the state, which is free from future sorrow and misery.

Vasishtha said:—Being thus accosted by me, Manki fell at my feet (in salutation); and then shedding the tears of joy from both his eyes, spoke to me on our way, with due respect (to my rank).

2. Manki said:—O venerable sir, I have been long travelling in all the ten sides of the earth; but I have never met a holy man like yourself, who could remove the doubts arising in my mind.

3. Sir, I have gained today the knowledge which is the chief good of the body of a Bráhmana, whose sacred person is more venerable and far more superior in birth and dignity, than the bodies of all other beings in heaven and on earth; but sir am sorry at heart, at seeing the evils of this nether world.

4. Repeated births and deaths, and the continued rotations of pleasure and pain, are all to be accounted as painful, on account of their terminating in pain. (Pain is pain, and pleasure too ends in pain).

5. And because pleasure leads to greater pain (at its want), it is better, O sage, to continue in one’s pain (which becomes a pleasure by long habit). The sequence of fleeting pleasure being but lasting pain, it is to be accounted as such even as long as it lasts.

6. O friend! all pleasures are as painful to me, as my pains have become pleasurable at this advanced age of mine; when my teeth and the hairs of my body, are falling off with the decay and wearing out of my internal parts also.

7. My mind is continually aspiring to higher stations in 102life, and is not persevering in its holy course; and the germ of my salvation, is choked by the thorns and thistles of my evil and worldly desires.

8. My mind is situated amidst its passions and affections, within the covert of my body, as the banian tree stands amidst its falling leaves in the interior of a rustic village; and the desires are flying like hungry vultures all over its body, in search of their abominable sustenance.

9. My wicked and crooked thoughts are as the brambles of creeping and thorny plants, and my life is a weary and dreary maze, as a dark and dismal night (where and when we are blind-folded to descry our right way).

10. The world with all its people, being parched and dried up like withered plants, without the moisture of true knowledge, and decaying day by day with incessant cares, is fast advancing towards its dissolution, without being destroyed all at once.

11. All our present acts are drowned in those of our past lives, and like withered trees bear no flower or fruit in our present life; and actions done with desire, terminate with the gain of their transitory objects. (Therefore no action nor meritorious deeds of religion, can ever tend to our salvation. (Which is had by our faith alone)).

12. Our lives are wasted in our attachment to family and dependants, and never employed to lead our souls across the ocean of the world; the desire of earthly enjoyments are decaying day by day, and a dreadful eternity awaits before us.

13. Our prosperity and possessions, whether they are more or less, are as noxious to our souls, as the thorny and poisonous plants growing in the hollow caves of earth; again they are attended with thoughts and cares causing fever heat in the soul, and emaciating the body.

14. Fortune makes the brave and fortunate people, fall sometimes in the hands of foes; as the man ardent with the desire of gems in his mind, is tempted to catch the gemming serpents, lying in dark caves (and lose his life in attempting to seize the treasure).

15. I being entirely inclined or given up to the objects of 103sense, am abandoned by the wise (who hate to touch the vile); and my mind which is polluted by worldly desires, and is all hollow within, is shunned by them as a dead sea with its troubled and turbid waters.

16. My mind is turning also about false vanities, as the rheumatic pains all about the body.

17. And I am also even with my innumerable deaths hunting after desired vacuity for sorrow, though my mind is purged from the dross of ignorance by reading sástra and associating good men; as the moon and stars which with its power of removing darkness, stand good in vacuity.

18. There is no end of the dark night of my ignorance, when the gloomy spectre of my egoism is playing its part; and I have not the knowledge, which like a lion may destroy the furious elephant of my ignorance, and burn down as fire the straws of my actions.

19. The dark night of my earthly desire or cupidity is not yet over, and the sun of my disgust of the world is not risen as yet; I still believe the unreal as real, and mind is roving about as an elephant.

20. My senses have been continually tempting me, and I know not what will be the end of these temptations, which prevent even the wise people, from observing precepts of the sástras.

21. This want of sight or disregard of the sástras, leads to our blindness by kindling our desires, and by blinding our understanding;—

22. Therefore tell me sir, what am I to do in this difficulty, and what is that may conduce to my chief good, that I am asking thee to relate.

23. It is said that, the mist of our ignorance flies like the clouds, at the sight of wise men and purification of our desires; now sir, verify the truth of this saying of wise men, by your enlightening my understanding, and giving peace to my mind.

Vasishtha said:—Consciousness (of the objects of perception), their reflection, the desire of having them and their imagination, are the four roots of evil in this world; and though these words are meaningless, yet considerable sense is attached to them (as categories of some schools of false philosophy); as the four sources of knowledge.

2. Know that knowledge (of externals) is their reflexion also, which is the seat (or root) of all evils; and all our calamities proceed therefrom, as thickly as vegetation springs out of the vernal juice (or breath of spring).

3. Men garbed in the robes of their desires, walk in the dreary paths of this world, with very many varieties of their actions (both temporal and ritual), as there are circles drawn under a circle (i.e. one circle of duty enclosing many others under it).

4. But these aberrations and wanderings over the earth, are at an end to the wise together with their desires; as the moisture of the ground, is dried up and diminishes at the end of the vernal season.

5. Our various desires, are the growers of the very many thorny plants and brambles in the world; as the vernal moisture is the cause of growing the thick clumps of kadalí or plantain trees.

6. The world appears as a dark maze to the mind, that is cloyed in the serum of its lickerish appetites; as the ground is shaded under the bushy trees, by the sap supplied by the vernal season.

7. There is nothing in existence except the clear and vacuous 105intellect, as there is nothing in the boundless sky, beside the hollow vacuity of the air. (This is another passage of the vacuistic theory of Vasishtha).

8. There is no intelligent soul beside this one, and all else is the everlasting reflexion of this one alone; This it is which is styled ignorance and error, and the world also.

9. He is seen without being seen, and is lost upon being seen (that is, the Lord is seen in the spirit and not by the visual sight). On looking to it an unreal or evil spirit appears to sight instead of the true and holy spirit, like ghosts and goblins appearing before children. (Whoever wishes to the spirit of God, sees the spirit of the devil only).

10. It is by rejecting all visible sights, the understanding views the one essence of all, and all things dwindle into it, as all the rivers on earth, run and fall into one universal ocean. (The one invisible unity is the essence of multiplicity).

11. As an earthen ware cannot be without its earth; so all intelligent beings, are never devoid of their intelligence or the intellect. (This couplet corroborates the eighth verse, where it is said that, there is nothing except the intellect).

12. Whatever is known by the understanding, is said to be our knowledge; but the understanding has no knowledge of the unknowable, nor want of understanding can have any knowledge, owing to their opposite natures. (Because understanding and knowledge are of the same nature, but understanding and unknowable are contraries, and want of understanding and the knowable are sub-contraries). (The plain meaning is that the understanding knows the knowable and not the unknowable; while want of understanding knows neither the one nor the other).

13. As there is the same relation of knowledge between the looker, his seeing and sight (i.e. the subject, act, and object of seeing); so it is omniscience of Brahma which is the only essence. (Sáraikarasyam), all else is as null as an aerial flower (Kha-pushpa) which never exists.

14. Things of the same kind bear an affinity to one another, and readily unite in one (as water with water &c.); so the world 106being alike to its notion, and all notions being alike to the eternal ideas in the mind of God, the world and the divine mind, are certainly the same thing and no other.

15. If there be no knowledge or notion of wood and stone in us, then they would be the same as the non-existent things of which we have no notion:—(such as the horns of a hare or a flower in the air).

16. When the outward and visible features of things, are so exactly similar to the notions and knowledge of them that we have in our minds; therefore they appear to be no other than our notions or knowledge of them. (Because things agreeing in all respects with one another, must be the same and very thing).

17. All visible appearances in the universe, are only the outstretched reflexions of our inner ideas; their fluctuation is as that of the winds, as their motion is as that of the waters in the ocean.

18. All things are mixed up with the omnipresent spirit, as a log of wood is covered over by lac-dye; both of which appear to be mixed together to the unthinking, but both are taken for the one and same thing by the thinking part of mankind; (who believe the spirit to exhibit itself in all shapes Ápna jathaika bhuvana).

19. The idea of reciprocity is unity, and the knowledge of mutuality is union also; such as the interchange of water and milk, and so the correlation of vision and visibles; and not as the union of the wood and lac-dye with one another. (This means unity to consist in the interchangeableness and interdependence of two things as of the spirit and matter, and not as sticking the lac-dye upon wood, but as fire inhering in every particle of the wood, as it is expressed in the afore cited sruti):—

20. The knowledge of one’s egoism is his bondage, and that of his unegoism is his emancipation from it; thus one’s imprisonment in and enfranchisement from the confines of his body and the world; being both under his subjection, why is it that 107he should be slack to sit himself at freedom from his perpetual thraldom?

21. Like our sight of two moons in the sky, and our belief of water in the mirage, we believe in the reality of our egoism, which is altogether an unreality. (Lit. We think it present without its presence).

22. The disbelief in one’s self or his egoism, removes his meity (mámatá) or selfishness also; and it being possible to everyone to get rid of them, how is it that he should be ignorant of it?

23. Why do you maintain your egoism only, to be confined in the cell of your body, like a plum drowned in a cup of water, or like the air confined in a pot? your relation to God is to be no other but like himself and to be one with him, is to have the reciprocal knowledge of yourself in the likeness of God (i.e. to be like the image of God in perfection).

24. It is said that the want of reciprocal knowledge, makes the union of two things into one (i.e. the entire commingling of two things together makes them one); but this is wrong in both ways, because neither doth any dull material thing or any spiritual substance, lose its own form (however mixed up with one or the other).

25. Neither is force converted into inertness (i.e. the spirit never becomes matter), from the indestructibility of their nature, and whenever the spiritual is seen or considered as the material, it becomes a duality, and there is no unity in this view of the two. (Hence there is no union or entire assimilation either of the spirituals or materials).

26. Thus men being under the influence of their desires, and beset by their vanities of various kinds (altogether) are going on downward still, as a stone torn from the head of a cliff, falls from precipice to precipice headlong to the ground.

27. Men are as straws carried here and there by the current of their desire, and whirled about in its eddy; they are overtaken by and overwhelmed in an endless series of difficulties which <are> impossible for me to enumerate. (The Sanskrit na párjate is the Bengali párájáyaná).

10828. Men being cast like a ball flung from the palm of fate, are hurried onward by their ardent desires till they are hurled headlong into the depth of hell; where being worried and worn out with hell torments, they take other forms and shapes after lapses of long periods (to undergo fresh toils and troubles on earth).

Vasishtha said:—Thus the living soul, being let fall in the mazy path of his world, is encompassed by calamities and accidents as countless as the animalcules, which are generated in the rainy season.

2. All these accidents though unconnected with one another, follow yet so fast and closely upon each other, as the detached stone lying scattered and close together in the rocky desert, and linked in a lengthening chain of thought in the mind of man.

3. The mind blinded of its reason, becomes a wilderness overgrown with the arbour of its calamities, and yet appearing to be smiling as a vernal grove before men, by its feigned merriment and good humour. (Mirth and sorrow are both of them the effects of unreasonableness).

4. O how pitiable are all those beings! Who being bound to their subjection to hope, are subjected to divers states of pain and pleasure, in their repeated births in various forms on earth.

5. Alas for those strange and abnormal desires, which subject the minds of men, to the triple error of taking the non-existent to be actually present before them. (The triple error (Triputi bhrama) consists in the belief of the visibles, their vision and the viewer of them, that is, in the subject, act and objects of sight, which are all viewed as unreal in the light of vedánta).

6. Those who have known the truth, are delighted in themselves, they are immortal in their mortal life, and are diffusers of pure light all about them. What then is the difference between the sapient sage who is coldhearted in all respects, and the cooling moon (who cools and enlivens and enlightens the world with her ambrosial beams?).

1107. And what is the difference between a whimsical boy and a covetous fool, who covets anything whatever at hand without any consideration of the past and future (good or evil which attends upon it).

8. What is the difference between the greedy fool and voracious fish or whale, that devour the alluring bait of pleasure or pain; and will not give up the line until they are sure to give up their lives for the same. (All seeming pleasure is real pain, and bane of both the body and soul of men).

9. All our earthly possessions whether of our bodies or lives, our wives, friends and properties, are as frail as a brittle plate made of sand, which no sooner it is dried and tried than it spurts and breaks to pieces.

10. O my soul! Thou mayst forever wander, in hundred of bodies of various forms in repeated births; and pass from the heaven of Brahmá to the empyrean of Brahma; yet thou canst never have thy tranquility, unless thou attainest the even insouciance of thy mind. (The stoic impassivity is the highest felicity).

11. The ties and bondage of the world, are dispersed by mature introspection into the nature of things; as the uneven ruggedness of the road, does not retard the course of the wayfarer walking with his open eyes.

12. The negligent soul becomes a prey to concupiscence and unruly passions, as the heedless passenger is caught in the clutches of demons; but the well-guarded spirit is free from their fright.

13. As the opening of the eyes, presents the visibles to sight; so doth the waking consciousness introduce the ego and phenomenal world into the mind. (i.e. Consciousness is the cause of both the subjective and objective).

14. And as the shutting of the eyelids, shuts out the view of the visible objects from sight; so, O destroyer of enemies, the closing of consciousness, puts out the appearance of all sights and thoughts from your eyes and mind (and this unmindfulness of everything besides, prepares the soul for the sight of the most high).

11115. The sense of the existence of the external world, together with that of one’s ego or self-existence, is all unreal and inane, it is consciousness alone that shows everything in itself and by the fluctuation of its erroneous; as the motion of winds displays the variegated clouds in the empty air. (It is the imaginative faculty of the mind, that creates and presents these phantoms before it).

16. It is the divine consciousness only, which exhibits the unreal phenomenals as real in itself, without creating anything apart or separate from its own essence; in the same manner as earth or any metal produces a pot or a jar out of itself, and which is no wise distinct or separate from its substance.

17. As the sky is only a vacuity, and the wind is a mere fluctuation of air; and as the waves are composed of nothing but water; so the world is no other than a phenomenon of consciousness: (because we have no knowledge of it without our consciousness of it).

18. The world subsists undivided in the bas-relief of consciousness, and without a separate existence of its own apart or disjoined in any part, from its substance or substratum of the conscious soul, which is as calm and clear as the empty air, and the world resembles the shadow of a mountain in the bosom of water, or a surge or wave rising on the surface of the sea.

19. There rises a calm coolness in the souls of wise and inexcitable sages, when the shining worlds appear as the cooling moon beams falling on the internal mirror of their minds.

20. How is it and by what means and in what manner, is this invisible supreme light, produced in the calm and quiet and all pervading auspicious soul, amidst the empty expanse of the universe. (Here is a double question of the production of uncreated light in creation and of the manifestation of divine and spiritual light in the quiet soul).

21. That essence which is expressed by the term Brahma, forms the essential nature and form of everything besides; and the same is permeated throughout all nature, except where it is obstructed by some preventive cause or other,—bádhá.

11222. Anything which presents a hindrance to this, and whatever is preventive of the pervasion of divine essence, is a nullity in nature like a sky flower—ákása pushpa, which is nothing at all in nubibus.

23. The wise man sits quietly like a stone, without the action of even his inner and mental faculties; because the lord is without the reflection or sensation of anything, and without birth or decay at anytime. (Here the mind and its workings, are explained as vikalpaná or changing thoughts, which are wanting in the eternal mind).

24. He who remains insensible and unconscious of every thing, like the empty state of the open sky; arrives by his constant practice to his state of sound sleep or hypnotism without the disturbance of dreams.

25. But how is it to be known that the world is the mere thought or will of the Divine mind? Whereto it is said: It is the creative power of Brahma (called Brahmá or Hiranyagarbha—the demiurgus), thought of forming the wondrous world in his mind (as it were he pictured it in himself), without the aid of any tool or instrument or means or ground for its construction; hence (it is plain), the world is merely ideal and nothing real, nor is there any cause or creator of it whatsoever.

26. As the lord stretches out the world in his thought, he or it instantly becomes the same; and as the lord is without any visible form, so this seeming world has no visible nor material form whatever; nor is there any framer of what is simply ideal.

27. So all men are happy or unhappy, as they think themselves to be one or the other in their minds; they all abide in the same universal soul, which is common to all; and yet believe themselves every one of his own kind in his mind.

28. Therefore it is as vain to view anything, or any intellectual being, in the light of an earthly substance, as it is false to take the visionary hills of one’s dream, in the light of their being real rocks situated on earth.

29. By assigning egoism to one’s self, he becomes subject to error and change; but the want of egoism, places the soul 113to its invariable identity and tranquility. (i.e. The sense of one’s personality, subjects him to change and misery).

30. As the meaning of the word bracelet, is nothing different from the gold (of which it is made); so the sense of thy false egoism, is no other than that of the tranquil soul. (The soul, self, and ego are all the one and same thing).

31. The anaesthetic sage, that is cold-blooded and sober minded as a silent muni, is no voluntary actor of any act, although he may be physically employed in his active duties; and the quiet saint carries with him an empty and careless mind, although it may be full of learning and wisdom. (Lit. the knower of God is as quiet, as the calm vacuum of heaven).

32. The wise man manages himself as a mechanical figure or puppet, never moving of its own motion but moving as it is moved, and having no impulse of his desire within him, he sits as quiet as a doll without its mobility.

33. The wise man that knows the soul, is as quiet as a babe sleeping in a swinging cradle, and which is moved without moving itself; or he moves the members of his body like a baby, without having any cause for his doing so.

34. The soul that is intent on the thought of the one (Supreme) only, and is as calm and quiet as the infinite spirit of God; becomes unconscious of itself and all other things, together with all its objects of desire, and expectations of its good and bliss.

35. He that is not the viewer himself, nor has the view before him, and is exempt from the triple condition (triputi bhába) of the subjective, objective and action; can have no object in his view; which is concentrated in the vision of the invisible one.

36. Our view or regard of the world, is our strict bondage, and disregard of it, is our perfect freedom; he who rests therefore in his disregard of (or indifference to) whatever is expressed by words, has nothing to look after or desire.

37. Say, what is it that is ever worth our looking after, or worthy of our regard; when these material bodies of ours, are as evanescent as our dreams, and our self-existence is a mere delusion. (There is nothing therefore worthy of our inquiry beside the divine intellect. Gloss).

11438. Therefore the wise man rests only in his knowledge of the true one, by subjection of all his efforts and desires, and quelling all his curiosity; and being devoid of all knowledge, save that of the knowable one.

39. Hearing all this, Manki was released from his great error; as a Snake gets loose from its slough by which it has been fast bound.

40. He retired from there to a mountain, on which he remained in his deep meditation for a century of years; and discharged the duties that occurred to him of their own accord, without his retaining any desire of any (or expectation of fruition).

41. He resides there still, unmoved and insensible as a stone, quite callous in all his senses and feelings, and wakeful with his internal sensibility by the light of his yoga contemplation.

42. Now Ráma, enjoy your peace of mind, by relying in your habit of reasoning and discrimination; do not deprave your understanding, under the fits of your passion; nor let your mind turn to its levity like a fleeting cloud, in the unrainy season of autumn.

Vasishtha continued:—Be dead to your sensibility, and retain the tranquility of your soul, by conforming with whatsoever thou gettest or is meted out to thy lot; or else the fair (order of nature and ordinance of God), will appear as foul, as a pure crystal shows itself as black in the shade.

2. All and every thing being contained in the only one, all extended soul, we can not conceive how the conception of variety or multiplicity can rise from the unity. (To Him no high, no low, no great, no small; He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all. Pope).

3. The category of the intellect is entirely of a vacuous nature, and having neither its beginning nor end; and is neither produced nor destroyed, with the production and destruction of the body. (And though it is diffused all over the body and its various powers and senses, yet there is variation of its own essence. Gloss).

4. All insensible and material bodies, are moved by the miraculous power of the intellect or mind; which being unmoved of itself gives motion to bodies, as the still waters of the sea gives rise to the waves. (Here the intellect is explained as the mind in the gloss).

5. As it is an error to suppose a sheet of cloth in a cloud, so the supposition of egoism in the body, is altogether erroneous: (since one’s personality consists in the soul and not in the person).

6. Do not rely in the unreal body, which is of this world, and grows to perish in it; but depend on the real essence of 116the endless spirit, for thy everlasting happiness (in both worlds).

7. The vacuous intellect, is the essential property of the immortal soul; this is the transcendent reality in nature, and may this super-excellent entity be thy essence likewise.

8. If you are certain of this truth, you become as glorious as that essence also; because the deep meditator loses himself in the meditated object, in his intense meditation of the same. (This assimilation of the triputi or triple condition of the thinker and his act and object of thought in one, is the meaning and main end of the yoga meditation of union).

9. The triple condition of the viewer, view and act of viewing, are the three properties of the one and same intellect; and there is nothing which is any other than (or not the same with) the knowledge thereof, as there is no thought unlike the act of its thinking. (This shows the agreement of the cause, its causation and effect).

10. The soul is ever calm and clear and uniform in its nature, it does not rise and fall like the tides by the lunar influence, nor is it soiled like the sea waters by tempestuous winds. (The soul is ever unruffled at any event).

11. As a passenger in a boat beholds the rocks and trees on the bank to be in motion, and as one thinks a shell or conch to be composed of silver; so the mind mistakes the body for reality, (which in truth is an unreal appearance).

12. As the sight of the material dismisses the view of the intellectual, so doth intellectuality discard the belief of the material; and so the knowledge of the living soul being resolved in the supreme soul, there remains nothing at last, except the unity of the all pervading spirit.

13. The knowledge that all this (world), is quite calm and quiet (in its nature); and the whole is an evolution of the divine spirit, takes away the belief in everything else, which is naught but the product of error and illusion.

14. As there is no forest in the sky, nor moisture in the sands; and as there is no fire in the disk of the moon, so there 117is no material body in the sight of the mind. (Mentally considered, there is no matter).

15. Ráma fear not for this world—the mere creation of thy error, and without its real existence whatsoever, know this transcendent truth, O thou best amongst the inquirers of truth, that this world is a nullity and void.

16. Your mistake of the existence of the visible world, and the disbelief which you fostered with regard to the entity of the invisible soul, must have been removed this day by my preaching, say now what other cause there may be of your bondage in this world.

17. As a plate, water-pot and any other earthenware, is no more than the earth (of which it is made); so the outer world is no other than the inner thought of the mind, and it wears away under the power of reasoning.

18. Whether exposed to danger and difficulty, or placed in prosperity or adversity, or betided by affluence or penury; you must preserve, O Ráma, your even disposition amidst the consciousness (or knowledge) of your joy and grief; be gladly free from the knowledge of your egoism, and remain as you are sedate by your nature, and without your subjection in any state.

19. Remain Ráma, as thou art, like the moon in the sphere of thy race, with thy full knowledge of everything in nature; avoid thy joy and grief at every occurrence, and give up thy desire and disgust for anything in the world. Do so or as you may choose for yourself.

Ráma said:—Please sir, explain to me moreover regarding the acts of men, which become the causes of their repeated births, as seeds are sources of the germs of future trees; and those to which the word daiva or divian is applied, imply the Divine dispensation, destiny or fate.

2. Vasishtha replied:—The meaning of daiva or destiny, is as that of a potter in producing the pottery; it is the act of intelligence (samvid), and not of blind chance, nor of human effort or manliness.

3. How is it possible for any action to be done by manly exertion only, without some effort of the understanding directing human energy to action; it is this intelligent power that makes the world and all what it contains.

4. The prosperity of the world depends on the understanding, exerting itself with a desire to bring about some certain end; and it ceases with the course of the course of the world, upon the exertion of the understanding to no purpose.

5. The insouciance or want of desire in the mind, is called its negative act, and the mind that merely moves on without engaging in any pursuit, is as a current stream without its undulation. (So mere living is no life without its action).

6. There is no difference between a thinking and unthinking soul, unless the mind of one is actuated by its imagination, to the invention of some manly art or work.

7. As there is no essential duality or difference in the water and its waves, and between desire and its result; so there is no distinction betwixt the intellect and its function, nor is there any difference in the actions from the person of their agent.

1198. Know Ráma, the action as the agent, and the actor the same with his action; both these are quite alike as the ice and coldness. (i.e. Man is known by his act, and the actions bespoke the man).

9. As the frost is cold and coldness the same with frost, so the deed is the same as its doer, and the doer is alike the deed done by him. (Every one is accountable for his deed, and the deed recurs to the doer of it).

10. The vibration of the Intellect (i.e. the divine will), is the same as destiny which is also the agent of action; these are synonymous terms expressing the same thing, and destiny, deed and other words have no distinct meaning.

11. The oscillation of the intellect is the cause of creation, as the seed is the source of the germ of a tree; want of this vibration is productive of nothing, wherefore intellectual activity contains in it the germinating seed of the whole world. (i.e. The action of the mind causes all things, and its inaction is the cause of total suspense).

12. The divine mind contains in its infinite expanse all the ample space of time and place; and is of its own nature sometimes in its fluctuation, and at others at a stand still like the vast ocean on earth.

13. The causeless and uncausing seed of the intellect, being moved by desire, becomes cause of the minutiae of material bones, as the seed becomes productive of its germs and sprouts.

14. All vegetable productions as the grass and all sorts of plants and creepers, vegetate from within their particular seeds as their origin; and these seed originate from the pulsation of the divine mind, which is increate and without any for it. (The pulsation of the divine mind is its creative will, which is the seed or source of creation).

15. There is no difference between the seed and its sprout, as there is no distinction of the heat from fire; and as you find the identity of the seed and its sprout, so must you know the identity of man with his acts. (i.e. Actions make the man, and the man does his actions like himself).

16. The divine Intellect exerts its power in the bosom of 120the earth, and grows the sprouts of the unmoving vegetable creation as from its seed; and these become great or small, straight or crooked as the waves of the sea as it would have them to be.

17. What other power is there beside that of the intellect, to grow the sturdy oaks and arbors from the soft clay and humid moisture, which compose the bosom of the earth?

18. It is this Intellect that fills the seeds of living beings with the vital fluid, as the sappy juice abiding in the inside of plants, gives growth to the flowers and fruits on the outside.

19. If this all inhering intellect, were not almighty also at the same time, say then what other power is there, that could produce the mighty gods and demigods in air, and the huge mountains on earth.

20. The divine mind contains in it the seeds of all moving and unmoving beings, which have their being from the movement of this intellectual power, and from no other source whatever.

21. As there is no difference in the alternate production of the seed and the germ or fruit from one another, so there is no difference in the commutual causation of man and his acts and the vice versa. In this manner also there is no shade of difference, betwixt the swelling waves and the sinking waters of the sea. (Man is but a bubble of its own blowing in the vast ocean of Eternity).

22. Fie to that silly and beastly being, who does not believe in the reciprocality of man and his action or of the agent and the act, by the law of mutatis mutandis inculcated in the vedas.

23. The prurience that is inherent in one’s consciousness, is the embryonic seed of his resuscitation to life; in the manner of the germination of plants: it is therefore meet to render this seed abortive by frying it in the fire of inappetency.

24. The doing of a thing with listlessness, and the performance of an act whether good or bad without taking it to the mind, is what is called lukewarmness by the learned.

25. Or it is exemption from desire, that is said to loosen a man from all connection; therefore try by all means in your 121power, to create in your mind a total unconcern for every one, and indifference to all things whatsoever.

26. In whatever manner you think it possible for you to rid of your lickerish desires, whether by means of your theoretical or practical yoga (the rája and hatha yogas), or by means of your manly exertion; you must root every desire from your heart, in order to secure your best welfare and perfect felicity.

27. But then you must endeavour to the utmost of your manly power, to suppress some portion of your egoism, in order to prevent the rise of selfish passions and desires within your health.

28. There is no other course of fording the unfordable expanse of the world, save by the exercise of our manly virtues; nor is there any other way of extinguishing our ardent desires, except by the extinction of egoism.

29. It is the inherent consciousness of the ever existent soul, which is both the prime seed as well as the first germ of the world; the same is the source both of action as also of its cause and effect of the person of man. It is that which is designated as destiny and the weal and woe of all.

30. In the beginning there was no other seed nor its sprout, nor even any man nor his action; nor was there any such thing as destiny or doom or any other prime cause, but all that existed was the Supreme intellect which is all in all.

31. There is neither any seed nor its germ in reality, nor is there any action or its active agent de facto; but there only one Supreme intellect in absolute and positive existence, and it is under the auspices of this hallowed name, that you see O sage! all these gods and demigods, and all men and women, are performing their respective parts as actors on the stage of the world.

32. Knowing this certain truth, and thinking thyself as the imperishable one, be freed from thy thoughts of the agent and action; give up all thy desires and false imagination, and live to reflect with thy body of self-consciousness alone. (Consider thyself as an intellectual being, and not the dull corporeal body).

12233. Remain fearless, O Ráma, and be more graceful with the calm composure of thy mind. Allay all thy desires and lay aside thy fears with them. Rely on thy clear intellect and continue to do thy endless acts (by guidance of the same). Be full in thyself with the Supreme soul, and thus thou shalt have the fulness of thy desires fulfilled in thee.

Vasishtha continued to say:—Remain always to look inwardly in thyself, by being freed from the feelings of passion and desire, continue in the performance of thy actions every where, but reflect always upon the quiet and spotless intellect within thyself.

2. The mind which is as clear as the open sky, and is full of knowledge and settled in the divine intellect; which is ever even and graceful and replete with joy, is said to be highly favoured of heaven and expanded by Brahma.

3. Whether be taken by pain and grief, or exposed to dangers and difficulties, or attended by pleasure or prosperity, in a greater or less degree.

4. In whatever place and in whatsoever state thou art placed, bear with thy afflictions with an unsorrowful heart; and whether thou weepest or criest, or becomest a play of opposite circumstances, be joyous in both for both are meant for thy good.

5. You are delighted in the company of your consorts, and feel joyous at the approach of festivity and prosperity; and it is because you are tempted like ignorant people, by your fond desire of pleasure.

6. Fools that are allured by their greediness of gain, meet with their fate in hazardous exploits and warfare; and it is fit that they should burn with the fire of their desire, like straws consumed in a conflagration.

7. Earn money by honest means and with the circumspection of a crane, in whatever chance presents itself before thee; and do not run in pursuit of gain, like the ignorant rabble.

8. O thou destroyer of thy foes, drive away by force all thy 124desires as the greatest enemies, and as winds of heaven drive afar the rainless and empty clouds of the sky.

9. Be tolerant, O Ráma, towards the ignorant people, that are led away by their desires and deserve thy pity; be reverent of highminded men, and delighted in thyself by observing the taciturnity of thy speech, and without being misled by thy desires like the ignorant mob.

10. Congratulate with joy and sympathise with sorrow, (whether of thyself or others); pity the sorrows of the poor, and be valiant among the brave.

11. Turn your eyes into your heart, and be always joyous by communing with yourself (or soul); and then whatever you do with a liberal mind, you are not to answer for the same as its agent.

12. By remaining fixed in the meditation of your soul, and by having your eyes always turned within yourself; you shall be invulnerable even at the stroke of a thunderbolt (darted by the hand of Indra). So saith the sruti:—The Gods have no power to hurt the holy. Tasya hana deváscha ná bhútya ishate.

13. He is said to be master of himself, who is freed from the delusion of desire, and lives retired in the cave of his consciousness; who is attached to his own soul and acts at his own will, and has his delight in his very self. (Because says the sruti—Whoso goes out of himself, loses his very self).

14. No weapon can wound the self-possest man, nor fire can chafe his soul; no moisture can damp the spirit, nor the hot winds can dry it up. (No elemental influence can prevail on the spiritual soul).

15. Lay hold on the firm pillar of your soul, which is unborn or increate, undecaying and immortal; adhere steadfastly to thy soul, as one clings to the prop or column of his house.

16. The world is an arbor, and all things in it are as the flowers of this tree; our knowledge of all things, is as the fragrance of these flowers; but our self-consciousness is the essence of them all; therefore look internally to this inward essence before you mind the externals.

17. All outward affairs, are brought about by their inward 125reflection in the mind; but it is as hard to bring about a desire into being, as to raise a stone to life.

18. Get rid of your bodily exertions and lull your mind to sleep; be doing all your duties, as a tortoise with its contracted limbs. (i.e. Act with indifference, and without being moved).

19. Manage thine affairs with a half-sleeping and half awakened mind (like a waking sleeper); and do thy outward functions (without the exertion of your mental faculties).

20. As babes are possessed of their innate knowledge, and dumb creatures are endowed with their instinct, without the feeling of any desire rising in them; so they live and act with their minds unattached to anything, and as vacant as the empty air.

21. Remain untroubled and free from care, with entirely sleepy and comatose mind within thyself; a mind devoid of all its functions and quite absorbed in itself, and slightly acting on the members of the body.

22. You may continue to discharge or dispense with your duties altogether, by impairing your mind with knowledge, and resting quietly in your pure consciousness, after it is purged from the stain of appetence.

23. Go on managing your outward affairs in your waking state, as if your faculties were dormant in sleep; and never hanker to have anything, nor let go aught that presents itself to thee.

24. If you are dormant when waking, by your inattention to all about you; so are you awake when sleeping by your trance in the bosom of the Supreme soul; and when you are in the condition of the union of the two, you attain to the state of perfect consummation.

25. Thus by your gradual practice of this habit of insouciance, you reach to that state of unity, which has neither its beginning nor end, and which is beyond all other things.

26. The world is certainly neither a unity nor duality (but is composed of a plurality in its totality, or the one in many A han Bahushaym), leaving therefore the inquiry into its endless 126varieties, resort to your Supreme bliss, with a mind as clear as the translucent sphere of empty air.

27. Ráma rejoined:—If it be so, O great sage! (That there is no ego or tu as you say), then tell me, why are we conscious of ourselves, and how are you sitting here under the name of the sage Vasishtha.

28. Valmíki said:—Being thus interrogated by Ráma, Vasishtha the best of speakers, remained silent for a moment, pondering on the answer he should make.

29. This silence of his created some anxiety in the royal audience, and Ráma too being perplexed in his mind, repeated his question to the sage and said:—

30. Why sir, are you silent like myself? I see there is no such argument in the world, which sages like yourself are unable to solve and expound:—

31. Vasishtha replied:—It is not owing to my inability to speak, nor want of argument on my part that made me hold my tongue; but it is the wide scope of your question that withheld me from giving its answer. (Or from answering to it).

32. Ráma! There are two kinds of querists, namely, the ignorant inquisitor and the intelligent investigator; and so there are two modes of argumentation also for them respectively: the simple mode for simpletons, and the rational form for intelligent and reasonable men.

33. You had been so long, Ráma, ignorant of superior knowledge, and fit to be taught in ordinary equivocal language.

34. But now you have become a connoisseur of superior truth, and found your rest in the state of supreme felicity; and are no longer to benefit by the ambiguous language of common speech.

35. Whenever a good speaker wishes to deliver an eloquent speech, whether it be a long or short one, or relate to some abstruse or spiritual subject (he must satisfy himself first).

36. The ego being the counterpart or privation of all representation, is inexpressible by representative sounds and words; and being beyond the predicaments of number and other categories, is not predicable by any of them or other 127fiction of fancy. It is the totality of all, as light is composed of innumerable particles of ray.

37. It is not right, O Ráma, that one who has known the truth (the gnostic), should give an imperfect or defective answer to a question (proposed to him). But what can he do, when no language is perfect or free from defect, as you know it well.

38. It is right, O Ráma, that I who know the truth, should declare it as it is to my pupils; and the knower of abstract truth is known to remain as mute as a block of wood, and the soundness of whose mind is hard to sound. (So says the Persian mystic:—He who has known the unknowable, has become unknown to himself and others).

39. It is want of self-cogitation that causes one to speak, (i.e. unsoundness of thought sounds in high sounding words); but they hold their silence who know the Supreme excellence; and this is the best answer that is given thy inquiry into this truth.

40. Every man, O Ráma, speaks of himself as he is (or thinks himself to be); but I am only my conscious self, which is unspeakable in its nature, and appertains to the unbespeakable one.

41. How can that thing admit the application of a definite term to give it expression, which is inexpressible by words (and beyond our conception); I cannot therefore express the inexpressible by words. I have already said, all are but fictitious signs: (representative of our certain ideas).

42. Ráma rejoined:—You sir, that disregard every thing that is expressed by words, and regard these as imperfect and defective symbols of their originals; must tell me now, what you mean by your “privation of representation” and what you are yourself.^[1]

12843. Vasishtha replied:—It being so (that there no determinate person expressed by the word egoism); hear me to tell you now, O Ráma, that art the best among the enquirers of truth, what thou art and what am I in truth, and what is world in reality.

44. This Ego, my boy, is the empty intellect and imperishable in its nature; it is neither conceivable nor knowable, and is beyond all imagination.

45. I am the clear air of the intellect, and so art thou the empty sky also; the whole world is an entire vacuity, and there is nothing else except an everlasting and infinite vacuum (beom) every where.

46. The soul is identic with pure knowledge, it is free from sensational knowledge, and beyond the conscious knowledge of others. I cannot call it anything otherwise than the self or soul.

47. Yet it is the fashion of disputants in order to maintain their own ground, or for the salvation of their pupils to multiply the egoism of the one soul, and to distribute it into a thousand branches.

48. When a living soul remains calm and quiet notwithstanding the management of its worldly affairs; and is as motionless as a living carcass, it is said to have attained its perfect state.

49. This state of perfection consists in refraining from external exercise and devotion, and persistence in continual meditation; feeling no sensation of pain or pleasure, and being unconscious of one’s self-existence, and the co-existence of all others besides.

50. Freedom from egoism and the consciousness of all other existence, brings on the idea of a total inexistence and emptiness, which is altogether beyond thought and meditation. (For none can think of a nothing). All attempt to grasp a nullity, is as vain as a blind man’s desire to see a picture.

51. The posture of sitting unmoved as a stone, at the shocks and turn backs (or drakes and ducks) of fortune; is 129verily the state of nirvána or deathless coma of a sensible being. (The figures of saints are as unmoved as statues).

52. This state of saintly anaesthesia is not marked by others, nor perceived by the saint himself; because the knowing sage shuns the society of men in disgust, and is enlightened with his spiritual knowledge within himself.

53. In this state of spiritual light, the sage loses sight of his egoism and tuism and all others and beholds the only one unity, in which he is extinct and absorbed in pure and unsullied felicity.

54. It is the intellection of the intellect, that is said to be conversant with the intelligibles (or the operation of the subjective soul on the objective); this is the cause of the creation of the world, which is the cause of our bondage and continual woes (in our repeated births and deaths).

55. It is said to be the dormancy or insensibility of intellection, when it is not employed about the intelligible objects; it is then called the supremely calm and quiet state of liberation (both for thought and action); and is free from decay.

56. The soul being in its state of peaceful tranquility, its ideas of space and time fly from it like clouds in autumn; and then it has no thought of anything else for want of its power of thinking.

57. When the sight of the soul is turned inwards (antar mukha) as in sleep, it sees the world of its desires rising before its consciousness in their aerial forms; but O ye princes, the sight of the soul being directed to the outside (bahir mukha), as in its waking state, it views the inward objects of his desire, presented before its sight in the gross forms of the outer world. (This passage shows the contrariety of the spiritual philosophy to the material; the former maintaining the material world to be a shadow of the ideal, and the latter asserting the intellectual as a representation of the visible world).

58. The mind, understanding and the other faculties, depend upon the consciousness of the soul, and are of the same nature as the intellect; but being considered in their intimate relation with external objects bahir-mukhatá, they are represented as 130grossly material. (In the doctrines of materialist—the sánkhya and others).

59. The self-same intellect being spread over our consciousness, of all internal and external feelings and perceptions; it is in vain to differentiate this one and undivided power, by the several names (of spiritual, mental, and bodily faculties).

60. There is nothing which is set apart, from the percipience of the conscious intellect; which is as pure and all-pervading as the empty vacuum, and which is said by the learned to be undefinable by words. (So says the sruti:—No speech can approach to it).

61. Being seen very acutely, the world appears as hazy in the divine essence, as it were something between a reality and unreality; and so dost thou appear to sight, as something real and unreal at the sametime. (All things appear as evanescent shadows in the clear mirror of the Divine Mind).

62. So am I the empty air, if can be free from desire; and so also art thou the pure intellect, if thou canst but restrain thy desires.

63. He who is certain of this truth (that he is the intellect), knows himself in reality; but whoso thinks himself as somebody under a certain appellation, is far from knowing the truth. Again anyone remaining in his unreal body, but relying in his intellectuality, is sure to have his tranquility and salvation. (So the sruti:—Anyone awakened to truth is sure to be saved, whether he is a God, rishi or sage, or a vile man).

64. Man’s exercise of the intellectual faculty, ameliorates the love of union with the original intellect by removing the ignorance; as heat of the fire mixes with the primitive heat, when wind ceases to blow.

65. Living beings who are converted to the state of patient trees and stones, by insouciance or insensibility of themselves, are said to have attained their liberation which is free from disturbance, and to be situated in their state of undecayableness.

66. A man having obtained his wisdom by means of his knowledge, is said to have become a muní or sage, but growing 131an ignoramus owing to his ignorance, he becomes a brute creature, or degraded even lower to some vegetable life.

67. The knowledge that “I am Brahma” (because I am a man) and this other is the world (because it is inanimate) is a gross error proceeding from gross ignorance; but all untruth flies away before investigation, as darkness vanishes before the advance of light.

68. He is wise who with the perception and actions of his outward organs, is simply devoid of his inward desires; who does not think or feel about anything in his mind, and remains quite calm and composed in his outward appearance.

69. The samádhi-trance of a wise man, is as his sound sleep uninfested by a dream; and wherein the visibles are all buried within himself, and when he sees naught but his self or soul.

70. As the blueness of the sky is a false conception of the brain, so the appearance of the world is a fallacy of the silent soul; they are no more than mists of error, that obscure the clear and vacuous sphere of the soul.

71. He is the true sage who though surrounded by the objects of wish, is still undesirous of any; and knows them all as mere unrealities and false vanities.

72. Know, O intelligent Ráma, that all objects of desire in this world, are as marvellous as those seen in our imagination, dream and in the magic of jugglers; such also are all the objects of our vision, on which you can place no trust nor reliance.

73. Know also, there is no pain or pleasure, nor any act of merit or demerit (i.e. any moral virtue and vice); nor anything which anybody, owing to the impossibility of there being any agent or patient (i.e. any active or passive agent).

74. The whole (universe) is a vacuum and without any support at all; it appears as a secondary moon in the sky or a city in one’s dream or imagination, none of which has its reality in nature.

75. Abide only by the rules of the community, or observe strictly thy mute taciturnity; and by remaining as a block of wood or stone, be absolved in the Supreme.

76. The tranquility and intellectuality of the Supreme 132deity, do not admit of any diversity in his nature; and his incorporeality does not admit of the attribution, of a body or any of its parts unto him.

77. There can be no nature whatever, whereof we have any conception, that can be attributed to the pure spirit (which is free from all stain and foulness); and this Divine spirit being inherent in all bodies, there can be no body for its nature ever imputed to him.

78. The existence of consciousness in the uncreated spirit, or in other words, the existence of a self-conscious eternal Intellect, cannot be denied of God; according to sophistry of Atheists; for though our knowledge of recipient and received (i.e. of the container and contained) is very imperfect, yet there is some one at the bottom that is ever perfect.

79. O Ráma! do you rely in that increate and indestructible Supreme being, which is ever the same and pure, irrefutable and adored by the wise and good; it is the irrefutable (i.e. demonstrable) verity, on which you should quietly depend for your liberation. And though you may eat and drink and play about like all others, yet you must know that all this is nothing.

Vasishtha continued:—Egoism is the greatest ignorance, and an insuperable barrier in the way of our ultimate extinction; and yet are foolish people seen to pursue fondly after their final felicity with their egoistic efforts, which is no better than the attempt of madman.

2. Egoism is the sure indicator of the ignorance of unwise people, and no cool-headed and knowing man is ever known in his egoship or the persuasion of his self-agency. (But this an article of the Christian creed).

3. The wise and knowing man, whether he is embodied or liberated state, renounces the dross of his egotism, and relies in the utter extinction or nullity of himself, which is as pure and clear as the empty vacuity of heaven, and free from trouble and anxiety (which await on self-knowledge and selfish activities in general).

4. The autumnal sky is serene and clear, and so are the waters of the calm and unperturbed sea; the disk of the full-moon is fair and bright, but none of these is so cool and calm and full of light, as the face of the wise and knowing sage, (shining with the radiance of truth and holy light).

5. The features of the sage and wise, are ever as sedate and steady, even in the midst of business and trifles; as the figures of warriors in battle array in a painting, even when engaged in the bustle of warfare and fury of fight.

6. All worldly thoughts and desires are nothing to the anaesthetic spirit of the self-extinct sage (in his nirvána); they are as imperceptible as the slender lines in a painting, and 134as lean as the rippling curls on the surface of the sea, which are not distinct and disjoined from its waters.

7. As the rolling waves of the sea, are no other than its heaving water, so the visible phenomena in the world, are no other than the spirit of Brahma disporting in itself.

8. Hence the soul that is undisturbed by the wave like perturbations, and is calm and quiet both in the inside and outside of it as the still ocean, and which is raised above temporal matters in its holy devotion, is said to be freed from all worldliness.

9. The ego rises of itself as an uncreated thing, and in the form of consciousness in the all comprehensive intellect of God, just as the waves rise and fall in the waters of the deep, and have no difference in their nature.

10. As the rising smoke exhibits in the sky, the various forms of forts, warcars and elephants; and as none of them, is any other than the self-same smoke; so are all these phenomena and notions, noway different from the nature of their Divine origin (but mere evolutions or vivartarúpas of the same).

11. By considering the fallacy of your consciousness (of the ego), you will, O ye my royal hearers, get rid of your error; and then you will exult in your knowledge of truth, and be victorious (over yourself). Do not despair, for ye are wise enough to know the truth.

12. As the growing sprout conceives in it, the would be tree with all its future flowers and fruits; so the ignorant man conceives in his vacant mind, the false ideas of himself—his soul, his ego and of everything else according to its fancy.

13. The conceptions of the mind are as false as the sight of things, such as the sight of a rod in a rising flame, (and that of a circle in the twirling of a lighted torch). And though the presiding soul is always true, yet these thoughts of the mind are as untrue as its fancy of fairies in the orb of the moon.

14. Now my royal hearers, do you continue to enjoy your peace, by considering at your pleasure, about the rise, end and 135continuance of the world; and remain from disease in all places and times.

15. Conduct yourselves with calmness, in whatever turns to be favourable or unfavourable to you; for unless you deport yourselves as dead bodies, you cannot perceive the felicity of your final extinction—nirvána or hebetude. (Be as a dead man, in order to taste the bliss of your spiritual deadness).

16. He who lives long in this world, by giving up his egoism and egoistic desires from his mind; and renounces the animality of his life to live and lead an intellectual life, attains verily the state of Supreme felicity.

17. Living the animal life (for the gratification of carnal appetites), leads only to the bearing of woes and misery; and men thus bound by the chain of their animal desires, are as big boats, burdened with loads of their ballast and cargo.

18. They are never blest with liberation, who are strangers to reasoning and addicted to the gross thoughts of ignorance; for how is it possible to obtain in this life, what is attainable only by the deceased in the next world. (This means the disembodied liberation—Videha mukti, which is to be had after one’s death).

19. Whatever a man fancies in this life, and desires to have in the next, (as his hopes of heavenly rewards); he dies with the same and finds them in his future life; but where there is no such fancy, desire or hope, that is truly the state of everlasting bliss.

20. Therefore be fearless with the thought of there being no such thing, as yourself or any one else (that you may believe as a real entity); by knowing this truth, you will find this poisonous world, turn to a paradise to you. (Think of nothing, and you will have no fear for anything).

21. Examine your whole material body, as composed of your outer frame and the inner mind; and say in what part you find your egoism to be situated; if no where, then own the truth of your having no ego any where.

22. Seeing all and every part of it up to the seat of your egoism, and finding it to be seated no where; you see only an 136open space (which is identic with the soul), and whereof no part is ever lost or destroyed.

23. In this (attainment of liberation) you are required to do no more, than to exert your manliness in relinquishing your enjoyments, cultivating your reasoning powers, and governing yourself by subduing the members of your body and mind. Therefore, ye ignorant men, that are desirous of your liberation, delay no longer to practice the government of yourselves (by shunning everything that relates not to yourselves).

24. The learned explain liberation to consist in the meditation of God, without any desire of the heart or duplicity in the mind; and this they say is not possible to do, without the assistance of spiritual knowledge. But the world being full of error, it is requisite to derive this knowledge from spiritual works moksha sástras, or else it is very likely to be entrapped in the very many snares, which are for ever set all about this earth.

25. Knowing full well the unreality of the world, and the uncertainty of one’s self and body, and of his friends, family and wealth and possessions; whoso is distrustful of them and identifies himself with his intelligence and pure vacuity, verily finds his liberation in this, and in no other state whatsoever.

Vasishtha said:—He who has devoted his whole soul to the contemplation of the Intellect, and feels the same stirring within himself, and knows in his mind the vanity and unreality of all worldly things, (is the person whose soul is said to be extinct in the deity).

2. By habituating himself to this sort of meditation, and seeing the outward objects in his perceptive soul, he views the external world, as an appearance presenting before him in his dream.

3. All this is verily the form of the Intellect, represented in a different garb. The intellect is rarer than the pure air, but collects and condenses itself as the solid world, and recognizes itself as such; wherefore the world is no other than the consolidated intellect, and there is nothing beside this anywhere.

4. It has no dissolution or decay, nor it has its birth or death; it is neither vacuity nor solidity, it is neither extension nor tenuity, but it is all and the Supreme one and nothing in particular.

5. Nothing is lost by the loss of egoism, and of this world also; the loss of an unreality is no loss at all, as the loss of anything in our dream, is attended with loss of nothing.

6. Nothing is lost at the loss of an imaginary city, which is altogether a falsity; so nothing is destroyed by the destruction of our egoism and this unreal world.

7. Whence is our perception of the world, but from a nullity; and if it is granted as such, then there is nothing that can be 138predicated of it, any more than that of a flower growing in the air (which is a nullity).

8. The conclusion arrived at last after mature thought in respect to this is, that you must remain as you are and as firm as a rock in the state in which you are placed, and in the conduct appertaining to your own station in life.

9. The world is the creation of thy fancy as thou wishest it to be, and there are the peculiar duties attached to thy station in all thy wonderings through life; but all these cease at once at the moment (of your divine meditation), and this is the conclusion arrived at (by the joint verdict of the sástras). (Every one cuts his own course in life, which ceases no sooner he thinks of its nihility. So it is said:—do thy duties till thy death but the thought of thy living in death, puts a stop to thy course all at once. Sanchintya mrituyncha tamugra dantang, sarvey projutná shithilá vabanti).

10. All this is inevitable and unavoidable in life, and is avoided only by divine meditation; in which case the whole creation vanishes into nothing, and there is no more any trace of it left behind. (i.e. In a future life or transmigration).

11. The unholy souls that view the creation, appearing before them like the dreams of sleeping men; are called sleeping souls, which behold the world rising before them, like the waving waters in a mirage.

12. Those who consider the unreality (of the world) as a reality, we know not what to speak of them, than with regard to the offspring of barren women. (i.e. the impossibility of the existence of either of them).

13. The souls of those that have known the true God, are as full as the ocean with heavenly delight; because they do not look upon the visible objects, nor do the visible ever fall under sight or notice.

14. They remain as calm as the still air, and as sedate as the unshaking flame of a lamp; and they continue to be quite at ease both <as> they are employed or unemployed in action.

15. As a minute atom makes a mountain, so the atomic 139heart becomes full when it is employed in business; and yet the cold-heartedness of the wise seer, continues the same as ever before. (i.e. The mind of the wise man, is not ruffled by the bustle of business).

16. The wish makes the man, though it is not seen by anyone; it is the cause of the world (worldly affairs), though it is not perceived by any body. (The wish being master to the thought—the master of action).

17. What is done by oversight or in ignorance, is undone or foiled by sight or knowledge of it; as for instance the thefts and other wicked acts, which are carried on in the darkness, disappear from sight before the blaze of daylight.

18. All beings composed of the fleshy body and the five elemental substances, are altogether unreal as the gross productions of error only; and so are the understanding, mind, egoism and other mental faculties, of the same nature and not otherwise.

19. Leaving aside both the elemental and mental parts and properties of your body, you attain to the purely intellectual state of your soul, which is called to be your liberation.

20. Attachment to the intellect and adherence to the intellectual thoughts, being once secured there will be end to the view of visibles, and there will be no more any appearance of fancy in the mind, nor any desire or craving rising in the heart.

21. But who has fallen into the error of taking the visibles for true, his sight of the unreal prevents his coming to the view of the true reality; and he finds at the end, that the visible world is but a mirage, and is never faithful to any body at any place.

22. So he finds the falsity of the world, whose soul has risen to its enlightenment within himself; but who ever happens to have the remembrance of the world in him, he comes to fall to the error of its reality again.

23. Therefore avoid your reliance in all worldly objects, and rely only on one who is simply as mere vacuum; and mind that 140is good you not to remember the world any more, and that your forgetfulness of it altogether is best for you.

24. In your forgetfulness of the world you will find nothing to be seen or enjoyed in it, and nothing of its entity or nullity whatsoever; it is as well as it is all quiet and still as the calm and unruffled ocean for ever.

25. The whole visible world is Brahma himself, and as such, the ocean of it is to be understood as a positive reality; it is a bubble in His eternity, which is all quiet and calm after immersion of bubbles and waves.

26. Meek and tolerant men, are seen to be sedate and dispassionate in their worldly transaction; and to be resigned to the Supreme spirit in their souls. (Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the kingdom of heaven).

27. Or the saint whose soul is extinct in his god, has only his meekness remaining in him; and being devoid of all desire, he is unfit for all worldly concerns. (It is hard to attend equally to one’s secular and spiritual concerns).

28. As long as one is not perfect in the extinction of his soul in the deity, he may be employed in the practice of his secular duties, by being devoid of passions, animosity and fear of any one. (This is enjoined for a devotee, till he reaches the seventh stage of his devotion).

29. The saint being freed from his passions and feelings of anger and fear and other affections, and getting the tranquility of nirvána extinction in his mind, becomes as frigid as snow and remains as a block of stone forever.

30. As the pericarp contains the seed of the future flower in it, so the saint has all his thoughts and desires quite concealed in his inmost soul, and never gives any vent to them on the outside.

31. The mind wanders on the outside by thinking about the outer world, and so is it confined within itself by its meditation on the inner soul; such is the contemplation of the Supreme being, either as he is thought of or seen in spirit in the inner soul, or viewed himself to be displayed in his works of 141creation in the outer world. (The spiritual and natural adoration of God).

32. The outer world is no other than an external representation of the delusive dream, which is in the inside of ourselves; there is not the slightest difference between them, as there is none in the same milk, contained in two different pots only.

33. The motion or inertness and the fickleness or steadiness of the one or other of them, are no more than the effects of our lengthened delusion; and the state of one being the container of the other, makes no difference in them, as there is none between the containing ocean and the waves it contains.

34. The dreams that we see in sleep, are no other than operations of the mind, though they are supposed in our ignorance to be quite apart from ourselves.

35. He that remains in the manner of the Supreme soul, quite calm and tranquil and free from all fancy and desires, becomes (extinct in) the very soul, by thinking himself as such; but he never becomes so unless he thinks himself to be as so; (Hence the formula of daily meditation soham, “I am he”, Átman bramatvena sambhavan).

36. The divine state is that of the perfect stillness of the soul (as in sound sleep), when there is not even a dream stirring in the mind; but what that state is or is not, is incomprehensible in the mind, and inexpressible in words. (It is, because we know it in our consciousness and it is not, because we know it not by the predicaments of space and time, and those of the container, contained, or any other category whatsoever).

37. Yet is this state made intelligible to us by instructions of our preceptors, and by means of the entire removal of our error as well as by our intense meditation of it; else there is no body to tell us what it really is. (The sástras tell us, what it is not; by their dogmas neti neti and tanna tanna; but never say a word about its real nature as idamasti).

38. It is therefore proper for you to remain entirely extinct in the external one and tranquil as the Divine spirit by giving 142up all your fear and pride, your griefs and sorrows, and your covetousness and all errors besides. You must forsake with these the dullness of your heart and mind, as also of your body and all its members, together with the sense of your egoism and the distinctions of things from the one perfect unity. (Knowing that “all are but parts of the one undivided whole”).

Vasishtha continued:—Soon as intellection commences to act, it is immediately attended by egoism—the cause of the erroneous conception of the world; and this introduces a train of unrealities, as the stirring of air causes the blowing of winds. (It means to say that being misguided by avidyá or ignorance, we are liable to fall into all sorts of error).

2. But when intellection is directed by vidyá or reason, its fallacy of the reality of the world, does not affect us in any manner, if we but reflect it as a display of Brahma himself, (that he is all in all); but we are liable to great error, by thinking the phenomenal world as distinct from Him.

3. As the opening of the eyes receives the sight of external appearance, the opening of intellection doth in like manner receive the erroneous notion of the reality of the phenomenal world.

4. What appears on the outside, being quite distinct from the nature of the inner intellect, cannot be a reality as the other; and therefore this unreal show is no more, than the dancing of a barren woman’s boy before one’s eyes. (Which is nothing).

5. The intellect is perceived by its conception of the notions of things, but when we consider the fallacy of its conceptions, and its notion of the unreal as real, it appears to us as a delusion like the appearance of a ghost to boys.

6. Our egoism also is for our misery, from the knowledge that “I am such a one;” but by ignoring (or the want of) this knowledge of myself, that I am not this or that, loosens me from my bondage to it. Therefore I say, that our bondage and liberation, are both dependant on our own option. (But as the 144innate consciousness of the self or ego is impossible to ignore, yet it is possible to every body, to ignore his being any particular person whatsoever).

7. Therefore the meditation which is accompanied with self-extinction and forgetfulness of one’s self, and the remaining of the moving and quick in the manner of the quiet and dead, is the calm tranquility of holy saints, which ever the same, unaltered and without decay.

8. Therefore, ye wise men, do not trouble yourself as the unwise with the discrimination of unity and duality, and the propriety or impropriety of speech, all which is wholly useless and painful frivolity.

9. The covetous man with his thickening desires, meets with a train of ideal troubles, gathering as thickly about him, as the thronging dreams assailing his head at night. These proceeding from his fondness of outward and visible objects, and from the fond desires inwardly cherished within his heart, grow as thickly upon him as the creation of his wild fancy.

10. But the meek man of moderate desire, remains dormant in his waking state (as a waking sleeper); and does not feel the pain or fear the pangs of his real evils, by being freed from his hankering after temporary objects.

11. Hence the desire being moderated and brought under proper bounds, bears resemblance even to our freedom from its bonds; as we get rid of our once intense thought of something, by our neglect of it in course of time and changing events.

12. The entire curtailment of desires, is sure to be attended with liberation; as the total disappearance of frost and clouds from the sky, leaves the empty vacuum to view.

13. The means of abating our desires, is the knowledge of ego as Brahma himself (and particular person or soul); and this knowledge leads to one’s liberation, as study of science and association with the wise, serve to convert ignorant men to sapience and knowledge.

14. In my belief there is no other ego but the one Supreme ego, and this belief is enough to bring men to the right understanding of themselves, and make their living souls quite calm 145and tranquil, and dead to the sense of their personality and self-existence.

15. The world appears as a duality or something distinct from the unity of God, just as the motion of the wind seems to be something else beside the wind itself, or the breathing as another thing than the breath; but this fallacy of dualism will disappear upon reflection of “how I or any thing else could be something of itself” (and unless it proceeded from the One everlasting unity).

16. That I am nothing is what is meant by extinction, and why then remain ignorant (of this simple truth); go, associate with the wise and argue with them, and you will so come to learn it (i.e. this truth).

17. It is in the company of those who are acquainted with truth, that you loosen the bonds of your worldly errors; just as darkness is dispelled by light, and the night recedes from before the advancing of the day.

18. Make it the duty of your whole life, to argue with the learned, concerning such like topics, as “what am I,” and what are these visible objects; what is life and what this living soul, and how and whence they come into existence.

19. The world is seen to be full of animal life, and I find my egoism is lost in it; the truth of all this is learnt in a moment in the society of the learned, therefore betake thyself to the company of those luminaries of truth.

20. Resort one by one to all those that are wiser than thee in the knowledge of truth, and by investigation into their different doctrines, the spectre of your controversy (i.e. error), will disappear for ever. (Because the maxim says, “as many heads so many minds, and as many mouths so many verdicts”, therefore examine them all and glean the truth).

21. As the spectre of controversy rises before the learned, in the manner of an apparition appearing before boys; so the error of egoism rises before them, in their attempt to maintain their respective arguments.

22. Let therefore the diligent inquirer after truth, attend separately to the teaching of every professor of particular doctrines; 146and then taking them together, let him consider in his own mind, the purport of their several preachings.

23. Let him weigh well in his own mind, the meanings of their several sayings, for the sharpening of his own reasoning, and accept the doctrine which is free from the flights of imagination and all earthly views.

24. Having sharpened your understanding by associating with the wise, do you cut short the growth of the plant of your ignorance by degrees, and by little and little (lit.—bit by bit).

25. I tell you to do so, because I know it is possible to you to do so; we tell you boys, accordingly as we have well known anything, and never speak what is improper or impracticable to you.

26. As the gathering or dispersion of the clouds in the sky, and the rising and sinking of the breakers in the sea, is no gain or loss to either, so the attainment or bereavement of any good whatever, is of no concern to the unconcerned sage or saint.

27. All this is as false as the appearance of water in the mirage, while our reliance in the everlasting and all pervading One, is as firm, secure and certain (as our supportance on a solid rock). By reasoning rightly in yourself, you will discover your egoism to be nowhere; how and whence then do you beget this false phantom of your imagination.

Vasishtha continued:—Ráma, if a man will not gain his wisdom by his own exertion, by his own reasoning and by the development of his understanding in the company of good men, then there is no other way to it.

2. If one will try to remove his mis-apprehensions and the false creations of his imagination, by the prescribed remedies of the sástras, he will succeed to change and rectify them himself, as they remove or remedy one poison by means of a counter poison.

3. All fancies and desires are checked by unfancying them, and this unfancifulness or undesirousness is the cause of liberation, by relinquishment of worldly enjoyment, which is the first step to it. (So says the sruti:—Renunciation of enjoyments, is the leader to liberation).

4. First consider well the meanings of words, both in your mind and utterance of them; and all the habitual and growing misconceptions will slowly cease and subside of themselves.

5. There is no greater error or ignorance in one’s self, except the sense of his egoism; and this error having subsided by one’s disregard of its accepted sense, it is not far from him to arrive at his liberation.

6. If you have the least reliance in your body and egoism, you surely lose the infinite joy of your unbounded soul; but by forsaking the feeling of your egoism or personality, you are freed from the bondage of your fondness for anything of this world, and become perfected in divine knowledge and blissfulness.

1487. It is from want of understanding, that all these unrealities appear as real to the ignorant; but we venerate and bow down to the sage, who remains unmoved as a stone at all this.

8. Who from want of his sense of external objects, remains as cold as a stone, and being reclined in the Supreme spirit by the meditation of the Divine Mind in his own mind; sees but an empty void both within and all around himself. (This is called perfect liberation of the soul).

9. Whether there be or not be all these visibles, they tend alike to our misery; it is our thoughtlessness of them alone that conduces to our happiness, wherefore it is better to remain insensible of them, by shutting our senses against them. (Our happiness or misery does not depend on the presence or absence of things, but upon our disregard of or concern for them).

10. There are two very serious diseases waiting on mankind, in their cares for this as well as those of the next world; and both of these are attended with intolerable pains to the patients of both their temporal as well as spiritual maladies.

11. In this world the intelligent are seen to try all their best medicines in vain, to remove their inveterate diseases of hunger and thirst, by means of their remedies of food and drink, during the whole period of their lives; but there is no remedy whatever for to heal their spiritual maladies of sin and vile, and avert their inevitable fate of death and rebirths in endless succession.

12. The best sort of men are trying to heal their spiritual maladies, and avert their future fate, by means of the ambrosial medicines of dispassionateness, keeping good company and improvement of their understanding.

13. Those who are careful to cure their spiritual complaint, become successful to get their riddance, by means of their desire of getting better, and by virtue of the best medicine of abstinence and refraining from evil. (Gloss. apathya tyága &c.).

14. Whoever does not heal even now his deadly disease of sin, which is his leader to hell fire on future; let him say what remedy is left for him to try, after he has gone to the next world, where there is no balsam to heal the sickly soul.

14915. Try all earthly medicines to preserve your life, from being wasted away by earthly diseases; and keep your souls entire for the next world, by the healing balm of spiritual knowledge in this life.

16. This life is but a breath, alikens a tremulous dew drop, hanging at the end of a shaking leaf, and ready to fall down; but your future life is long, and enduring under all its variations, therefore heal it for the everlasting futurity.

17. By carefully attending to the treatment of spiritual diseases at present, you will not only be hale and holy in your soul in the next world, but evade all the diseases of this life, which will fly off afar from you.

18. Know thy conscious soul as an animalcule, which evolves itself into the form of this vast world; just as an atom contains a huge mountain in it, which evolves from its bosom in time.

19. As the evolution of your consciousness, presents to your view the forms that you have in your mind (i.e. ideals); so doth the phenomenon of the world appear in the womb of vacuum, and is no more real than a false phantasy.

20. Notwithstanding the repeated deluge and destruction of the visible earth, there is no change nor end of the false phantom of our mind, where its figure is neither destroyed nor resuscitated, owing to its being a phantasy only and no reality whatever. (It is possible to destroy the form of a, but not its idea in the mind).

21. Should you like to lift up your soul, from the muddy pit of earthly pleasures and desires, wherein it drowned forever; you must put forth your manly virtues, as the only means to this end, and without which there is no other.

22. The man of ungoverned mind and soul, is a dull-headed fool, and fallen in the miry pit of carnal desires; he becomes the receptacle of all kinds of danger and difficulty, as the bed of the sea is the reservoir of all the waters falling to it.

23. As boyhood is the first stage of the life of a man, and introduces the other ages for perfection of human nature; so 150the first step to one’s self-extinction, is the renunciation of his carnal enjoyments, conducing to the subjection of passions.

24. The stream of the life of a wise man, is ever flowing onward with the undulations of events, without overflowing its banks or breaking its bounds; and resembles a river drawn in a picture, which is flowing without the current of its waters.

25. The course of the lives of ignorant people, runs with tremendous noise, like the precipitate current of rivers; it rolls onward with dangerous whirlpools, and flows on with its rising and setting billows (till it mixes with the sea of eternity).

26. Continuous creations and course of events, are transpiring with the succession of our thoughts; and appearing before us like the illusive train of our dreams, and the false appearance of two moons in the sky, and the delusion of mirage and apparitions rising to the sight of children.

27. So the incessant waves raised by the undulating waters of our consciousness, appears as the endless chain of created objects, rising in reality to our view; but being taken into mature consideration, they will appear to be as false and unreal, as they seem true and real to our erroneous apprehension of them.

28. It is said that are worlds and the cities of Gandharvas and Siddhas, contained in the concavity of the firmament, and it is supposed also that, the cavity of the sky is a reservoir of waters; but all these are but creations of the mind, and there no such things in reality.

29. The worlds are as bubbles of water, in the ocean of the conscious mind; they are only the productions of the fanciful mind, and no such things, as they are thought to be; and the idea of ego, is but forms of our varying thoughts.

30. The expansion of consciousness is the course of unfolding the world, and the closing of it conceals the phenomenals from view; therefore these appearances are neither in the inside nor outside of us; and they are neither realities, nor altogether unreal also (but effects of the opening and shutting of our minds only).

15131. There is one thing alone of the form of the intellect, which is unborn and unknown (in its true nature), and is the undecaying (i.e. everlasting) lord of all; it is devoid of substance and property, and is called Brahma or immensity, and tranquil spirit, which is as quiet and calm as the infinite void, are rarer than even the empty atmosphere.

32. There is no cause whatever, which can be reasonably assigned to the agitation, consciousness and creations of the spirit of Brahma; which being above nature is said to have no nature at all. Its agitation is as that of the air; whose cause is beyond all conception.

33. Brahma has his thoughts rising in him, as waves in the ocean of himself, and as our consciousness of the dreams rising in our soul; and the nature of this creation is in reality, neither as that of his dream, or the wave produced from his essence. (It is hard to say, whether this is a thought of himself as a dream, or a part of him like a wave).

34. This much therefore can only be said of him that, there is only an unknowable unity, which is ever the same and never as quick as thought, nor even as dull as matter; it is not a reality or unreality, nor any thing this positive or negative. (In a word, it is nothing that conceivable by the human mind).

35. The Yogi that remains in this insouciant state of Brahma, and insensible of his own consciousness (i.e. who is inexcitable both in his body and mind), such a person is said to be the best of sages and saints.

36. Who becomes inactive and inert as a clod of earth, even while he is alive; who becomes unconscious of himself and the outer world, and thinks of nothing (except the Supreme soul); he is said as the best of sages and saints.

37. As we lose sight of wished for objects, by ceasing to wish for them (such as the sights of fairy lands &c.); so we get rid of our knowledge of ourselves and the world, by our ceasing to think about them (by confining our thoughts in God alone).

38. All things expressed, in words have certain causes assigned to them; but the cause of their nature remains inexplicable, 152(whence nature—swabháva is said to be avidyá or hidden ignorance). It is the cause of this prime nature (i.e. God), whose knowledge alone conduces to our liberations (from ignorance).

39. Nothing whatever has its particular nature of itself, unless it were implanted in it by the intelligence of God, as it were by infusion of the moisture of divine intelligence.

40. All our thoughts, are agitated by inspiration of the breath of the great intellect; know them therefore as proceeding from the vacuum of the entity of the supreme Brahma.

41. There is no difference whatever, in the different nature of the creator and creation; except it be as that of the air and its agitation, which are the one and same thing and of the same nature. The thought of their difference is as erroneous, as the sight of one’s death in his dream.

42. An error continues so long, as the blunder does not become evident by the light of reasoning; when the error being cleared of its falsity, flies to and vanishes into the light and truth of Brahma.

43. Error being the false representation of something, flies away before a critical insight into it; and all things being but productions of our error, like our conception of the horns of hare, they all vanish before the light of true knowledge, which leaves the entity of Brahma only at the end.

44. Therefore give up all your errors and delusions, and thereby get rid of the burden of your diseases and decay; and meditate only on the One, that has no beginning, middle, or end, is always clear and the same, and full of bliss and felicity, and assimilate yourself to the nature of the clear firmament: (which according to Vasishtha is the nature and form of God).

Vasishtha continued:—The man who is lost in the pleasure or under the pains, which fall to his share in this life, is lost for ever for the future; but he who is not thus lost (by keeping his soul aloof from the vicissitudes of life), is pronounced to be imperishable by the verdict of the sástras.

2. He who has his desires always rising in his mind, is ever subject to the changes of his fortune; therefore it is proper to give up desire at first, in order to prevent the alternation of pain and pleasure.

3. The error that this is I and that the world, does not attach to immortal soul; which is tranquil and unsupported, quite dispassionate and undecaying in itself.

4. That this is I, that is Brahma, and the other is the world, are verbal distinctions that breed error in the mind; by attributing different appellations, to one uniform and invariable void that is ever calm and quiet (This is the eternal vacuum of Vasishtha, beside which there is nothing else in existence).

5. Here there is no ego nor world, nor the fictitious names of Brahma and others; the all pervading One being quite calm and all in all, there is no active or passive agent at all in this place (or vacuity).

6. The multiplicity of doctrines and the plurality of epithets, which are used to explain the true spirit and inexplicable One, are null and refutable, and among them the word ego in particular, is altogether false and futile.

7. The man absorbed in meditation does not see the visibles, as the thoughtless person has no perception of the ghost standing in his presence; and as one sleeping man does not perceive 154the dreams, occurring to another sleeping by his side, nor hear the loud roar of clouds, in the insensible state of his sound sleep.

8. In this manner the courses of the spirits are imperceptible to us, though they be continually moving all about us; because it is our nature to perceive what you know of, and never know anything, which is without or beyond our knowledge.

9. Knowledge also being as our soul, shows all things like itself (i.e. as we have their ideas or representations of them in our mind); therefore our knowledge of the ego and the world beside, is not separate from the soul and the Supreme soul also.

10. So our knowledge (idea or notion), manifests itself in the form of the world before us; in like manner as our dreams and desires (or imaginations), represent the same as true to us. These various manifestations of the inward soul, are no way different from it, as the waves and bubbles are no other than the water, whence they take their rise.

11. Notwithstanding the identity of the soul, and its manifestations of knowledge, notion, idea and others; they are considered as distinct things by ignorant thinkers, but the learned make no distinction whatever, between the manifestation and its manifesting principle.

12. As the integral soul becomes a component body, by its assuming to itself all its members and limbs; so the eternally undivided spirit of God, appears to be multiplied in all parts of the world, and various works of creation.

13. So the intellect contains numberless thoughts in itself, as a tray holds a great many golden cups in it; and whenever this intellect is awake, it sees innumerable worlds appearing before it.

14. It is Brahma himself that shines in his brightness, in the form of this fair creation; by being dissolved throughout the whole, in his liquified form of the Intellect, as the sea shows itself in the changing forms of its waves.

15. Whatever is thought of in the mind, the same (thought or idea) appears in the form of the world &c., and the formless 155thought takes a definite form; but what is not in the mind, never appears to view.

16. The word intellection and want of thought, are both applied to the Supreme Intellect, from its almighty power to assume either of them to itself; this sort of expression is for the instruction of others, or else there are no such states, appertaining to the ever intelligent soul in reality.

17. The world is neither a reality nor unreality, but exhibits itself as such by intellection of the intellect; but as it does not appear in absence of intellection, the same is inculcated in this lecture. (i.e. Never think of the world or anything at all, and it will vanish of itself withal).

18. Intellection and its absence, are as the agitation and stillness of the soul; and both of these being under your subjection, it is quite easy and never difficult for you to restrain yourself, by remaining as still as a piece of stone.

19. An appearance which has neither its essence or substance, and any assignable cause for its existence, is the very nature of this egoism of ours, which we know not whence it has appeared as an apparition before us.

20. It is very strange that this apparition of your ego, which has no entity in reality; should take such possession of your mind, as to make you insensible of yourself.

21. It is by accident that one happens to observe (or resolve) the ego, in the person of the impersonal Brahma; just as a man by deception of his eye sight, comes to descry an arbour in the sky.

22. If my ego and the world are really the same with Brahma, then how and whence is it that come to have their production and dissolution, and what is the cause of our joy or sorrow in either of these cases.

23. It is by the almighty power of God, that this world of thought (or the ideal world), comes to be visible to sight; but as the absence of thought of it, prevents its appearance into us; there be thoughtless of it in order to avoid its (repeated) sight (in repeated births).

24. It is by mere accident that the vacuous (empty) mind 156of Brahma, exhibits the ideal world in itself; just as any man dreams a fairy city, or sees the objects of his desire and fancy in his mind. How then is it possible to separate the contained from the containing mind?

25. The creation abides in the divine mind, in the same manner, as the waves appertain to the sea and statue inheres in the wood; and as the relation of pots and other things is with the earth, so do all things pertain to the nature of Brahma.

26. As all things appear in their formless (immaterial) state, in the unsubstantial and transparent vacuity of the mind; so doth the ego and this world also appear in the divine mind: (in the same manner as the shapeless clouds appear in the clear and empty sky, and exhibit afterwards their various shapes).

27. As the air by its natural inflation, breathes out in various sorts of breezes, so One whose nature is unknown, evolves himself in every form of the ego of each individual and of the world. (The breezes are said to be forty-nine in number. The nature of God is called avidyá—ignorance or what we know not). The meaning is that, as the formless and vacuous air produces all sorts of winds. So doth God who is nihsabháva without and beyond sabháva nature produce all natures.

28. As the formless smoke or vapour, presents the forms of elephants, horses, &c., in the empty clouds; so doth the unsubstantial spirit of God, represent the formless ego, tu and all things beside in itself.

29. The creation is a component part, of the unknown body of Brahma, as the leaves and branches are those of the tree; and it contains both its cause and effect of the other.

30. Knowing the impossibility of the existence of the world, beside the self ever existent soul; remain at peace and without trouble within thyself. Be free from attributes and errors, and remain as free and detached as the free, open and void space.

31. Know that neither you nor ourselves, nor the worlds nor the open air and space, are ever in existence; and that Brahma alone is ever existent, in his eternal tranquility, calmness and fulness.

15732. Seeing the endless particulars in the universe, do thou remain free from all particularities as I, myself, thou, thyself &c., and think thyself in the sole and Supreme One, if thou shalt have thy liberation.

33. Know the knowledge of the particulars, is for thy bondage alone to them, and thy ignorance of them lends only to thy liberation (from all these trammels). Sit as thou art and doing thy business, in thy state of tranquility and total nescience of everything.

34. Let not the visibles attract thy sight, nor allow their thoughts engross thy mind; thus the world disappearing with thy thoughtlessness of it, say what else have you to think about.

35. The absence of the states of the visible and its looker i.e. of the subjective and objective, resembling the state of the waking sleeper, will make remain as void of thoughts, as the vault of the autumnal sky is devoid of clouds.

36. The Knowledge of the action of the divine Intellect, as distinct from the invariable of Brahma, is the cause of our making a distinction of the creation from its creator; just as our knowledge of the difference of the wind from air, causes us to think of their duality. It is therefore our want of this distinction, and the knowledge of the unity of Brahma, that leads us to our liberation.

37. The knowledge of the inflation of the divine spirit, is verily the cause of our knowledge of the world; whereas the absence of this knowledge, and want of our own intellection, is what is called our nirvána or utter extinction in God.

38. As the seed is conscious of the sprout growing out of it to be of its own kind, so the divine Intellect knows the world that is produced from it, to be self-same with itself.

39. As the seed becomes the plant from its conception of the same in itself, so the divine Intellect becomes the creation itself from its concept of the same.

40. As the thoughts are but the various modifications of the mind, so the creation is a modality of the divine Intellect; and in this case all kinds of seeds serve as instances, of having their products of the same nature.

15841. The world is the changeless form of the unchanging essence of One, and know to be as unchangeable and undecaying as One, himself, who is without beginning and end.

42. The divine soul is replete with its innate will, whereby it produces and destroys the world out of and into itself; this form of unity and duality, is as the appearance and disappearance of an imaginary city.

43. As you have no distinct idea of the things, expressed by the words sky and vacuum; so must you know the words Brahma and creation to bear no distinction in the divine spirit. (Creation being but the breathing or inflation of the spirit and inseparable from it).

44. The great Intellect or omniscience, which is the sempiternal form of divine essence, has the knowledge of the ego coeternal with itself, which men by ignorance assume to themselves.

45. There is nothing that ever grows or perishes in the mundane form of Brahma, but everything rises and falls in it like the undulation of the sea, to rise and fall in all way and never to be lost in any way.

46. All things being of the form of Brahma, remain in the selfsame Brahma; as all spaces remain in the infinite space and all waves and billows rise and fall in the same sea.

47. Wherever you are placed and whenever you have time, attend but for a moment to the (subjective) nature of the soul in your consciousness (without minding any of the objects), and you will perceive the true ego.

48. The sages, O Ráma, have said of two states of our consciousness, namely its sensible and insensible states; now therefore be inclined to that which thou thinkest to be attended with thy best good, and never be forgetful of it. (i.e. Attach thyself to the subjective side of it, in disregard of the objective).

Vasishtha continued:—The state of the soul is as placid, as that of the untroubled mind in the interval of one’s journey from one place to another, when it is free from the cares of both places (of trouble).

2. Be therefore quite unconcerned in your mind in all states of your life, whether when you sit or walk or hear or see anything, for the purpose of securing your unalterable composure.

3. Being thus devoid of your desires, and undistinguished in society, continue as steadfast as a rock, in the particular conduct of your station in life.

4. Being placed in this manner beyond the reach of ignorance, one is blest with the light of knowledge in his mind.

5. After disappearance of ignorance from the mind, there can be no trace of any thought left in it; nor can the mind think of anything, when tranquility has got her ascendency in it.

6. Brahma is verily one with the world, and the selfsame one appearing as many to our ignorance; which represents the plenitude of Brahma as a multitude, and his pure spirit as extended matter.

7. The plenum (of creation) appears as vacuum (of annihilation), and vacuity appearing as substantiality; brightness deemed by darkness, and what is obscure is brought to light.

8. The unchangeable is seen as changing and the steady appearing as moving; the real appears as unreal, and the unreality as reality; so that seeming as otherwise, and so the vice versa also.

1609. The indivisible appears as divided, and energy appearing as inertia; the unthinkable seems as the object of thought, and the unparted whole seeming to shine in innumerable parts.

10. The unego appears as the very ego, and the imperishable One appearing as perishable; the unstained seem as tainted, and the unknowable known as the knowable all of the known world.

11. The luminous One appearing as deep darkness of chaos, and the oldest in time manifested as the new born creation; and the One minuter than an atom, bearing the boundless universe in its bosom.

12. He the soul of all, is yet unseen or dimly seen in all these his works; and though boundless and endless in Himself, he appears as bounded in the multitudinous works of his creation.

13. Being beyond illusion, He binds the world in delusion; and being ineffable light, he centres his brightness in the dazzling sun. Know then, O best of inquirers, that Brahma resembles the endless expanse of the vast ocean.

14. This immense treasure of the universe, so enormous in its bulk, appears yet as light as a feather, when put into balance with the immensity of Brahma; and the rays of his illusion, eluding the moon-beams in their transparency, are as invisible as the glare of the mirage.

15. Brahma is boundless and unfordable (as the ocean), and is situated in no time nor place nor in the sky, where he has set the forests of the clusters of the stars, and the huge mountains of the orbs of planets.

16. He is minutest of the minute (by his inhering in the bodies of the smallest minutiae); and the bulkiest of the bulky. He is the greatest among the great, and the chiefest of the chief.

17. He is neither the doer, deed nor instrument of doing anything; and neither is the cause of another, nor has he any cause for himself. (In Vedánta, all causality is denied of the all pervading Brahma). And being all empty within, Brahma is full in Himself.

16118. The world which is the great casket of its contents, is as void as a vast desert; and notwithstanding its containing the countless massy and stony mountains in it, it is as ductile as the plastic ether and as subtile as the rarefied air.

19. All things however time worn appear anew every day; the light becomes dark by night, and darkness is changed to light again.

20. Things present become invisible to sight, and objects at a distance present themselves to view, the intellectual changes to the material, and the material vanishes to the superphysical (thought or spirit).

21. The ego becomes the non-ego, and the non-ego changes to the ego; one becomes the ego of another, and that other and the ego, become as something other and different than the ego.

22. The full ocean of the bosom of Brahma, gives rise to the innumerable waves of world; and these waves like worlds evolve from and dissolve into the ocean of Brahma’s breast, by their liquid like and plastic nature.

23. The vacuous body of Brahma bears a snow white brightness over all its parts, whence the whole creations is full of a light as fair as snow and frost. (Light is the first appearance or work of God, and envelopes the whole universe that was formed in and after it).

24. This God being beyond the space of all time and place, and without all forms, figures, and shapes whatever; stretches out in space and all times of day and night, the unreal figures in the world like the unstable waves of the sea.

25. In this light there shines the bright filament of the worlds, in the ample space of the sky; appearing as so many ancient arbours standing in a long and large forest, and bearing the five elements as their pentapetalous leaves.

26. The great God has spread out this light, as a clear mirror before his sight; in order as he wished to see the shadow of his own face, represented in the pellucid twilight (which proceeded at first from him).

27. The unbounded intellect of God, produced of its own 162free will the spacious firmament, wherein the lord planted the tree of his creation, which brought forth the luminous orbs as its fruits in different parts of it.

28. The lord created a great many varieties of things, both in the inside as well as outside of himself; which appear as internal thoughts in his intellect, and as all entities and non-entities in his outer or physical world.

29. In this manner, the divine mind exhibits the different forms of things, in itself and of its own will, as the tongue displays the varieties of speech within the cavity of the mouth.

30. It is the flowing of the fluid of divine will, which forms the worlds; and it is the conception of pleasant sensations in the mind, that causes these torrents and whirlpools in the ocean of the world. (i.e. The will is the cause of creation, and the feelings and passions are as whirlwinds and whirlpools in the mind).

31. It is from the divine mind that all things proceed, as the light issues from fire; as it is the lulling of the creative mind to rest, that the glow of all visible objects are extinguished and put out of sight.

32. All the worlds appertain to the divine intellect, as the property of whiteness adheres to the substance of snow; and all things proceeded from it, as the cooling moon-beams issue out of the lunar orb.

33. It is from flush of the hue of this bodiless intellect, that the picture of the world derives its variegated colouring; and it is this intellect alone which is to be known, as an infinite extension without its privation or variation at any time.

34. This stupendous Intellect, like the gigantic fig-tree (ficus religiosa) of the forest, stretches out its huge branches on the empty air of heaven, bearing the enormous bodies of orbs of worlds, like clusters of its fruits and flowers.

35. Again this colossal intellect appears as a huge mountain, firmly fixed in the air, and letting down many a gushing and running stream, flowing with numberless flowers, falling from the mountain trees.

36. In this spacious theatre of vacuum, the old actress of 163destiny, acts her part of the representation of worlds in their repeated rotations and succession.

37. In this stage the player boy—time is also seen to play his part, of producing and destroying by turns an infinity of worlds, in the continued course of Kalpa and Mahákalpa ages, and in the rotation of the parts of time.

38. This playful time remains firm in his post, notwithstanding the repeated entrances and exits of worlds in the theatre of the universe; just as a fixed mirror ever remains the same, though shadows and appearance in it, are continually shifting and gliding through it.

39. The Lord God is the causal seed of the worlds, whether existing at present or to come into existence in future; just in the same manner as the five elemental principles are causes of the present creation. (Here Brahma is represented, as in all other passages, as the material cause of the world).

40. The twinklings of his eye cause the appearance and disappearance of the world, with all its beauty and brightness; but the Supreme soul having no outward eye or its twinkling, is confined in his spirit only. (The physical actions which are attributed to God, are always taken in their figurative sense).

41. The very many great, and very great creations and dissolutions of worlds, and the incessant births and deaths of livings, which are continually going on in the course of the nature; are all the various forms of the One unvaried spirit, whose breath, like the inflation of air, produces and reduces all from and into itself. Know this and be quiet and still.

Vasishtha continued:—The false varieties of the world take us by surprise, as the eddies attract to them the passing vessels; but they are all found to be of the same nature, as the various waves of the sea. (As all the waves are but water, so all worldly appearances are mere enticing delusions).

2. The nature of the whole world, is as unknowably known to us; as that of the universal vacuum which rests in God alone, is imperceptibly perceptible to our eyes. (All we see of the sky, is but a blank which is nothing).

3. As I find nothing in the fancied cities of boys in the air, (which they think to abound with ghosts etc.); so doth this really ideal world, appear to be in real existence to boys alone. (But the wise know it as unreal).

4. The sight and thought of visible appearances, are as the visions and remembrances of objects in dream; and so is this world but an appearance to the sight, and a phantom and phantasy in the mind.

5. The phenomenal and the fancy, have no pith nor place except in the intellect; beside which there is nothing to be had save an unbounded vacuity only. Where then is the substantiality of the world?

6. The error of the world consists in the knower’s knowledge of it, and it is the ignorance (of the existence) of the world, that is free from this error; and the knowing or ignoring of it is dependant to thee, as the thinking or unthinking of a thing, is entirely in thy power. (Every one is master of his thoughts).

7. The vacuous intellect being of the form of the transcendent 165sky, is of the state of an extended space, to which it is impossible to impute any particular nature or quality whatsoever. (The gloss explains it by saying that, the intellect is neither any extended matter, nor entirely an empty vacuity, since it is the source of all intellectual powers and mental faculties).

8. The world also being of the form of the intellect (i.e. a formal representation of it); has no particular character or variable property assignable to it. It is seen to be existent, but having no particular feature of its own, it is not subject to any variation in its nature (i.e. Being a formless thing, it can have no vikára or change of form at all).

9. All this being a representation of the vacuous intellect, has no substantiality whatever in it; it is the substance and not the knowledge of a thing, that is subject to any change in its form, because knowledge appertains to the intellect, which is always unchangeable.

10. I see all quiet and calm, and the pure spirit of God; I am without the error of ego, tu &c., and see nothing about me, in the same manner as we can never see a forest growing in the air.

11. Know this my voice to be the empty air as my conscious thought, and know also these words of mine to proceed from my empty consciousness, which resides in the empty spirit likewise. (i.e. Sound proceeds from the empty spirit and not from the material body) (as some would have it).

12. That which they designate the transcendent essence, is the eternal and involuntary state of rest of the Divine soul, and not what it assumes to itself of its own volition (as that of the creative energy of Brahmá—the Demiurge). That state resembles that of a slab of stone, with the figures naturally marked upon, or as the pictures drawn in a plate or chart.

13. The silent man (muni or mouni) whose mind is calm and quiet in the management of his ordinary business, remains unmoved as a wooden statue, and without the disturbance of any desire or anxiety.

14. The living wise and listless man sees all along his life time, 166the world resembling a hollow reed, all empty within and without it, and having no pith or juice in the inside of it. (The wise well know the vanity of the world).

15. He who is not delighted with the outer world, reaps the pleasure of his inner meditations; but he who is indifferent to both in his mind, is said to have gone over the ocean of the world (and set free from all his cares).

16. Give out the words from your lungs, like a sounding reed from its hollow pipe; and clear your mind from its thoughts, by keeping your body intact from busy affairs, and employing no other member of it after them (except your tongue).

17. Touch the tangibles as they come to thee without thy desiring them; and remain in thy solitary cell without thy wishing for or minding about them, or grieving at their want.

18. You may relish the various flavours, which are offered to you; and take them to your mouth in the manner of a spoon without wishing for or taking a delight in their sweet taste.

19. You may see all sights, that appear before you; without your desiring for or delighting in them.

20. You can smell the sweet perfumes and flowers, that fall in your way without your seeking them, take the scents only to breathe them out, as the odoriferous winds scatter the flowers all around.

21. In this manner if you go on to enjoy the objects of sense with utter indifference to them, and neither longing after or indulging yourself in any; you shall in that case have nothing to disturb your peace and content at any time.

22. But whoso finds a zest for the poisonous pleasures of life, increasing in himself day by day; casts his body and mind to be consumed in their burning flame, and loses his endless felicity.

23. Want of desire in the heart, is said to constitute the obtuse insensibility of the soul, called samadhána by dispassionate sages; and there is no other better lesson to secure the peace of mind, than the precept of contentment (lit. absence of desire).

24. The increasing desire is as painful, as one’s habitation 167in hell fire; while the subsidence of desires in the mind, is as delightsome as his residence in heaven.

25. It is desire alone, which constitutes the feelings of the heart and mind; and it is this, which actuates mankind to the practice of their austerities and penances, according to the sástras.

26. Whenever a man allows his desire, to rise in any manner in his heart; even then he scatters a handful of the seeds of affliction, to sprout forth in the fair ground of his mind. (The more desire the more pain).

27. As much as the craving of one is lessened by the dictates of this reason, so much do the pain of his avaricious thoughts cease to molest them. (Nothing to desire nothing to fear).

28. The more doth a man cherish his fond desire in his mind, the more does it boil and rage and wave in his breast.

29. If you do not heal the malady of your desire, by the medicine of your own efforts; then I think you will never find a more powerful balsam to remedy this your inveterate disease.

30. Should you be unable to put a check to your desire altogether, you must still try to do it by degrees, as a passenger never fails to get his goal even by slow paces in time.

31. He who does not try to diminish his desires day by day, is reckoned as the meanest of men, and is destined to live in misery every day.

32. Our cupidity is the causal seed of the crop of our misery in this world; and this seed being fried in the fire of our best reason, will no more vegetate in the ground of our breast.

33. The world is the field of our desires and the baneful sources of misery only, it is the extinction of them which is called nirvána; therefore never be tempted by the delusion of desire for your utter destruction.

34. Of what avail are the dictates of the sástras, and the precepts of our preceptors; if we fail to understand that, our samádhi or final rest consists in the extinction of our temporary desires.

35. He who finds the difficulty of checking his desires in his mind, it is hopeless for him to derive any good from the 168instructions of his preceptors, or the teachings of the sástras whatever.

36. It is the poison of avarice which proves the bane of human life, as the native forests of stags prove destructive to them, by being infested by huntsmen. (Hearts infested by avarice, are as detrimental to men; as forests infested by hunters are baneful to stags).

37. If one would not deal frivolously, with the acquisition of his self-knowledge (spirituality); he may but learn to extenuate his cravings, and he will thereby be led insensibly, to the acquirement of his spiritual knowledge.

38. Extinction of wish is the extirpation of anguish, and this is the sense of the nirvána bliss; therefore try to curtail your desires, and thereby to cut off your bondage, which will not be difficult for you to do, if you will but try to do so.

39. The evils of death and decrepitude, and the weeds of continued woes, are the produce of secret seed of desire, which to be burnt betimes by the fires of equanimity and insouciance.

40. Wherever there is inappetency, the liberation from bondage is found to be even there also; therefore suppress always your rising desires, as you repress your fleeting breath (in the practice of ajapá or suppression of breathings).

41. Wherever there is appetence, even there is our bondage in this world; and all our acts of merit or demerit and all our distresses and diseases, are the invariable companions of our worldly wishes.

42. The dominant desire being deprived of its province, and the indifferent saint being freed from its bondage; it is made to weep and wail, as when a man is robbed by a robber.

43. As much as a man’s desire is decreased in his breast, so much so does his prosperity increase, leading him onward towards his liberation.

44. A foolish man that is ignorant of himself (i.e. of his soul and spirit), and fosters his fond desire for anything; is as if he were watering at the root of the poisonous arbour of this world, only to bring his death by its baneful fruits.

16945. There is the tree of desire growing in the human heart and yielding the two seeds (fruits) of happiness and misery (i.e. of good and evil); but the latter being fanned by the breeze of sin, bursts out in a flame which burns down the other, and together with it its possessor also. (The evil desire supercedes the good one).

Vasishtha continued:—Hear me explain to you more fully, O Ráma! what I have already told you in brief, regarding the treatment of the malady of desire, which forms also an article of the practice of yoga asceticism.

2. Tell me if the will is anything, beside the soul in which it subsists; and if it is nothing apart from the soul, how do you wish to attribute an agency to it, other than that of the soul?

3. The divine intellect being a thing; more subtile in its nature than the rarity of open air, is consequently without any part, and indivisible into parts. It is of itself an integrant whole, and one with myself, thyself and the whole world itself.

4. This intellect is of the nature of vacuum, and the infinite vacuum itself; it is the knower and the known or the subjective and objective world likewise. What then is that other you call the will?

5. There is no relation of the container and contained, or of the subject or object between it and ourselves; nor do we know those saintly men, who know it as any object of their knowledge.

6. We are at a loss to determine the relation, of the subjectivity and objectivity of our (as when I say, I am conscious of myself, here “I am” is the subject of myself—the object). It is just as impossible to find out my egoism and meity, as it is to expect to see a potential black moon in the sky. (Here is a long note on the subjective and objective of my knowledge of myself).

7. Such is the case with all the triple conditions of the subject, object and predicate (as the beholder, beholden and beholding); which having no existence of their own in the 171nature of things, I know not how they may subsist elsewhere except in the essence of the very soul.

8. In the nature of things, all unrealities are referred to the reality of the soul, as our egoism and tuism, the subjective, objective &c.; and so all things liable to destruction are said to become extinct in the self-existent and everlasting soul.

9. In extinction there is no presence of anything, nor anything present is said to become extinct; the idea of the simultaneous presence and absence of a thing, is as absurd as the sight of light and darkness together in the same place at the same time.

10. Neither can these abide together, on account of the repugnance of their nature; nor can they both be extinct at the same, as we see the presence of the one and the absence of the other before our eyes. So there is no nirvána in the living, because the one is a state of rest, and the other of pain and misery.

11. The phenomenals are fallacies, and afford no real happiness; think them as unreal, and rely solely in the increate lord, by thy nirvána or extinction in him (through the medium of thy devout meditation).

12. The pearl-shell looks like a silver, which is not likely to be realized from it; it is of no use or value, why then do you deceive yourself, with such like baubles of the world?

13. Therefore their presence or possession is full of misery, as their want or absence is fraught with felicity; want being had with the knowledge of the term, proves a substantive good in thy thought nididhyásana of it. (Want importing the absence both of good and evil, is a certain blessing. It may mean also want (of riches) with the gain of knowledge, is a certain good in the province of thought).

14. Why then the vile do not come to perceive their bondage in riches? and why is it that they slight to layhold on the treasure of their eternal welfare, which is even now offered before them?

15. Knowing the causes, effects, and states of things, to be full of the presence of the One only; why do they fail to feel 172his immediate presence in their consciousness, which spreads alike through all?

16. Mistaken men like the stray deer, are seeking Brahma in the causes and states of things; not knowing that the all pervading spirit, spreads undivided and unspent throughout the whole vacuum of space (or throughout the infinite vacuity of space).

17. But what is end of the doctrine of causation, unless it to establish the cause as the primary source of all; but how can force which is the cause of ventilation, and fluidity the causal principle of liquid bodies, be accounted as the creator of wind and water? (In this case every cause becomes a separate Deity which is absurd).

18. It is absurdity to say that, vacuity is the cause of vacuum, and the creative power is the cause of creation, when One alone, is the cause, effect, state and all of every thing himself. (One-God is the primary, formal and final cause of all).

19. It is therefore absurd to attribute the terms, importing causality and creativeness of creations to Brahma, who is identic with all nature, is unchangeable in his nature, and derives neither pleasure nor pain from his act of the creation of worlds. (What changed through all yet in all the same &c., and without the feelings of pleasure or pain).

20. Brahma being no other than the intellect (or omniscience), can have no will or volition stirring in his nature; as a doll soldier or painted army, are no other than the mud or plate and without any motion or movement of them.

21. Ráma said:—If there is no reality of the world, and our ego and tu are all unreal, and the phenomenal is no other than the noumenal Brahma; then it is the samething, whether there be any will stirring in the Divine mind or not, since God is always all in all.

22. Again if the rising will (to create) be identic with the nature of God, as the rising wave is the same as the sea water; then what mean the precepts of controlling the will (such as the enforcing a good and restraining a bad desire)?

17323. Vasishtha replied:—It is true, O Ráma, as you have understood it, that the divine will is no other than the divinity itself, in the knowledge of those, who are awakened to the light of truth. But hear me tell you further on this subject.

24. Whenever a wish rises in the breast of the ignorant, it subsides of itself from their knowledge of the nature of the wished for object; just as the gloom of night, departs before the advance of sun-light.

25. But the rising wish sets of itself in the heart of the wise man, as the doubt of duality vanishes from the minds of learned, upon the rise of the light of their understanding.

26. No one can wish for any thing, whose desires of all things are already dead within himself; and who is freed from his ignorance, and is set in the pure light of his liberation.

27. The wise man is neither fond of, nor averse to the sight of the phenomenals; he views the beauties of nature (lit. of the visibles), as they appear before him, without relishing (or delighting) in them of his own nature.

28. If any thing offer itself to him, by some or by means or causality of others; and if he find it right for him to take the same, he may then have the option, either to accept or refuse it, as he may like.

29. Verily the will or desire and the unwillingness of the wise, are actuated by and proceed from Brahma himself; they have no uncontrollable or inordinate desire, but pursue their own course, and have nothing new or inordinary to wish for. (Pleased with their simple living, they have nothing anew to wish for or accept).

30. As wisdom rises on one side, so the wish sets down on the other (side); nor can they combine to dwell together, as there is no chance of their uniting in the mind of any body, as there is no possibility of light and darkness meeting at the same place.

31. The wise man, is not in need of any exhortation or prohibition in any act; because his heart being quite cool in itself in all his desires, there is no body to tell him anything to any purpose.

17432. This is the character of the wise man, that his desires are imperceptible in his heart, and while he is full of joy in himself, he is complacent to all others about him.

33. There is also a shade of heavenly melancholy settled in the outward countenance, and a distaste or indifference to every thing in his mind; it is then that the current of desires ceases to flow in his heart, and his mind is elevated with the sense of his liberation.

34. Whose soul is serene, and his intellect unclouded by the doubts of unity and duality; his desires turned to indifference and all his thoughts concentrated in the Lord.

35. Whose knowledge of duality, has entirely subsided in his intellect; and whose belief of unity is without the alloy of the union of any other thing (in the sole and perfectly pure One); who is quite at ease and without any uneasiness, and resides calmly in the tranquility of the Supreme soul.

36. He has no object to gain by his acts, nor anything to lose by their omission; he has no concern whatever with any person or thing either for aught of his good or otherwise.

37. He is indifferent both to his desire as well as to his coolness, nor has he any care for the reality or unreality of things; he is not concerned about himself or others, nor is he in love with his life nor fear of death.

38. The self-extinguished soul of the enlightened, never feels any desire stirring in itself; and if ever any wish is felt to rise in his breast, it is only an agitation of Brahma in it.

39. To him there is no pleasure or pain, nor grief or joy; but he views the world as the quiet and increate soul of the Divinity manifest by itself; the man that goes on in this manner, like the course of a subterranean stream, is truly called the enlightened and awakened.

40. He who makes a pleasure of his pain in his thought, is as one who takes the bitter poison for his sweet nectar; the man who thus converts the evil to good, and thinks himself happy in his mind is said by the wise, to be awakened to his right sense (to wit that all partial evil is universal good).

41. Thinking one’s self as vacuity, with the vacuum of 175Brahma; and as quiet as the tranquility of the Divine spirit; and the thought of every thing resting in the spacious mind of God, is tantamount to the belief of the world as one with Brahma himself. (This is the doctrine of pantheism of vedánta and all mysticism).

42. In this manner all consciousness is lost in unconsciousness, and the knowledge of the world, is lost in the infinity of empty air. The error of our egoism is likewise drowned in the depth of the even and vast expanse of the Divine unity.

43. All that is seen here in the forms of the moving and fixed bodies of the world (the roving and fixed stars &c.); are all as quiet as quiescent empty sky which contains them, or as a visionary utopia of imagination.

44. As there is a free intercourse of the thoughts, of one person with those of another, and there is no interposition in their passage from one mind to another; in the same manner there is the same reflection of this shadowy world in the minds of all at once.

45. The earth, heaven and sea, with the hills and all other things, appear before our empty minds, exactly as the false sights of water &c., appear in a mirage to our eyes.

46. The phantasmagoria of the world, appearing visibly before us, is as false as a vision in our dream, and as delusive as a spectre appearing in the imaginations of little boys.

47. Our egoism or consciousness of ourselves, which seems as a reality unto us, is no other than a delirium of our brain, and an erroneous conception of the mind.

48. The world is neither an entity nor non-entity either, nor a substantiality and unsubstantiality both together; it is not to be ascertained by the sense nor explained by speech, and yet it exhibits itself as the fairy land or air drawn castle in empty air. (Its nihility is the doctrine of vacuists and its substantiality is supported by materialists; that it is neither is tenet of sceptics, and therefore it is but an empty dream).

49. Here our wish and effort as well as our want of both, are all alike in the opinion of the learned (who maintain the doctrine 176of irrevocable fate); but in my opinion it is better to remain in cool indifference (owing to the vanity of human wishes).

50. The knowledge of “I and the world” (i.e. of the subjective and objective), is as that of air in the endless vacuity; it is the vibration of the intelligent soul, like the breath of air in vacuum, that causes this knowledge in us, beside which there is no other cause (of the subjective self or the objective world).

51. The aptitude of the intellect or the intelligent soul, to its thoughts or longing after external objects, makes it what we call the mind, which is the seat of same with what is called the world; but the soul getting released from this leaning, is said to have its liberation. Follow this precept and keep yourself quiet.

52. You may have your desire or not, and see the world or its dissolution; and come to learn that neither of these is either any gain or loss to thee, since there is nothing here in reality, and every thing is at best but the shadowy and fleeting form of a dream. (So likewise the production and annihilation of the world, which are the products of divine will, is of any consequence to the unconnected deity).

53. The nolens & volens or the will and no will, the ens & non ens or the entity and non-entity, the presence or absence of any thing, and the feeling of pain and pleasure at the loss or gain of something, are all but ideal and mere aerial phantasies of the mind.

54. He whose desires are decreased day by day, becomes as happy as the enlightened wise man, and has like him his share in the liberation of his soul.

55. When the sharp knife of keen desire pierces the heart, it produces the sorely painful sores of sorrow and grief, which defy the remedies of mantras, minerals and all sorts of medicament.

56. Whenever I look back into the vast multitude of my past actions, I find them all to be full of mistakes, and not one which was not done in error, and appears to be without a fault or blunder.

17757. When we meet only with the erroneousness of our past conduct, and find them all to have been done for nothing; how then is it possible for us to discern the hearts of others, which are as inaccessible hills unto us. (How can we discern another’s mind, when we to our own are so grossly blind).

58. Our dealing with the unreal world (as with untruthful men), is lost in the glancing or twinkling of an eye; for who can expect to hold the horns of a hare in his fingers.

59. The belief of our egoism or personality consisting in our gross bodies, serves to convert the aerial intellect to a gross substance in a moment; and make our mind as a part of the solid body, just as the rain drop is congealed to the hailstone.

60. It is owing to our intellect, that we have the conception of the reality of our unreal bodies; just as the undying principle of the intellect, happens to see its own death in our sleep.

61. As the unreal and unsubstantial vacuum, is said to be the blue or azure sky by its appearance; so is this creation attributed to Brahma by supposition, which is neither real nor quite unreal.

62. As vacuity is the inseparable property of vacuum, and fluctuation is that of air; so is creation an inseparable attribute of God, and is one and same with the essence of Brahma himself.

63. There is nothing produced here as the world &c., nor is anything lost or annihilated in it; all this is as a dream to a sleeping man, which is a mere appearance and nothing in reality.

64. So the inexistent earth and others, are apparent in their appearance only; then why need you care or fear about the being or not being of this world, which is no more than a production and subversion of it in the region of the Intellect.

65. The apparent body, is no reality by the causality of the elements as the earth &c.; it is only a formation of the Divine intellect, and situated in the divine spirit. (The body is neither formed out of the dust of the earth, nor by a combination of the five elements; but is a shadow of its form in the Divine mind).

66. The instrumentality of the mind &c. in the causation of the world, is also untrue and absurd, owing to the union of two 178causes in one (i.e. the combination of the primary and instrumental causes together). (The unity of God consists in his being the original and material cause, and not as a formal or instrumental one).

67. All things are uncaused and unconsecutive in the divine mind, where they are eternally present at one and the sametime; as the whole series of the actions of a man from his birth to death, appear in an instant of his dreaming states. (All is ever present before the omnipresent and omniscient).

68. All things are contained in and as inane as the vacant Intellect, where this spacious earth with her high hills of solid bases, and all her peoples with their actions and motions, are ever existent in their aerial forms in the knowledge of the aeriform intellect of God.

69. The world is a picture painted on the airy surface of the divine mind, with the various colours derived from the intellect of God; it never rises nor sets, nor does it ever become faint, nor does it fade nor vanishes away.

70. The world is a huge wave of fluidity in the water of the Intellect, why is it so and how produced, and how and when it is subside, is what nobody can say. (The world is once compared to breath of air and here to a liquid, to mean its having no solidity in it).

71. When the great vacuity of the intellect is calm and quiet, then the world remains in its form of an empty void also; just as the soul being quite thoughtless in itself; there can be no rise or fall of any object before it. (Hence the alternate action and rest of the divine spirit, is said to cause the appearance and disappearance of the world by turns. Manu I).

72. As we imagine the mountains to touch the skies, and the sky to present the figures of mountains in it; it is in the like manner that we suppose the presence of Brahma in all things of creation. (But all this supposititious knowledge proceeds from error).

73. It is by the application of a jot of their intelligence, that yogis convert the world to empty air, as also fill the hollow air with the three worlds up and down. (i.e. They 179are practised to produce everything as also to reduce it to nothing in their thought).

74. As we imagine thousands of the elysian cities (or seats) of the siddha deities, to be situated in the different regions of heaven; so are the numberless worlds scattered apart from one another in the infinite space of divine intellect.

75. As the eddies in the ocean whirl apart from one another, and seem to make so many seas of themselves; though they are composed of the same water.

76. So the numerous worlds, revolving separately in the vacuity of the Divine Intellect, are all of the same nature (with their intellectual reservoir), and not otherwise.

77. The awakened (or enlightened) yogi, views worlds above worlds in his clairvoyance; and to pass to the ethereal regions of the perfected siddhas, as it is related by sages (in the story of Lílá narrated before).

78. There are numberless imperishable beings and immortal spirits, which are contained in the Supreme spirit; as the endless worlds are situated in the hollow sphere of heaven.

79. It is the intrinsic pleasure of the divine soul, to scatter the wandering worlds about it, as the odorous flower diffuses its immanent fragrance, and spreads its flying farina all around; they are not extrinsic or adventitious, but are born within itself like the lines and marks in a diamond or crystal.

80. The fragrance of flowers though mixed up together in the air, are yet separate from one another; so are all the created bodies existing together in the air, all distinct in their natures: (such is the union of the different elements in one body, and as every flower has a vassal breeze to bear its own perfume).

81. Our fancies though of the form of air, assume different shapes in the minds of men; such as those of gross natures have them in their gross material forms, while the holy saints view them in their pure forms in the mind. (This means the two views of things in their concrete and abstract forms).

82. Neither are the gross materialists nor pure spiritualists, right in their conceptions of things; but every one has to feel according to his particular view and belief of a thing. (i.e. 180The materialist is subject to material pain and pleasure, from which the idealist is entirely free).

83. By thinking the world to be contained in the thought of the Intellect, it will be found to be no way different from it, than the water is from its liquidity. (The mind and its thought, being the one and same thing).

84. Know chronos—the time, and cosmos—the universe, with all the worlds contained in it together with the ego and tu or myself and thyself and all others, to be the One and very unity; which is the calm and quiet vacuum of the great Intellect, which is same with the very self of the unborn and undecaying soul of God. Be not therefore subject to passions and affections, which do not appertain to the nature of the self-same Deity.

Vasishtha continued:—The Intellect perceives the world raised before it, by the fallacy of its understanding; as a man beholds mountains in the sky, by the delusion of his eye sight.

2. The doctrines that the world is the creation of Brahma or of the mind, are both alike in substance; in as much as they regard it in an immaterial and not physical sense.

3. The world subsisting in our knowledge or consciousness of it, is same with its internal knowledge, and not as existing externally or out of our consciousness; and although it appears to be situated out of it, like the features of a picture appearing as prominent above their base, it is on a level with its plane. The original figure being contained in the substratum of our inner knowledge, the outward appearance is to be likewise known as the same also.

4. In our opinion there is no difference, between the two systems of the interior and exterior knowledge of the world; because both of them being of the form of our knowledge of them, the exterior shape is no reality at all.

5. Hence all things being the same with our intellectual knowledge of them, and this knowledge being indistinct and invariable in its nature, the distinctions of the changing scenes of the world can have no place in it (and must therefore be false and unreal).

6. Therefore I adore that omniscience which is the soul of all, in which all things exist and whence they all come to existence; which is all and displays all things in itself and pervades all infinity forever.

1827. When the subjective intellectual power chinmaya, becomes united with the objective Chitya or intelligible world, by means of the intrinsic Chit or intellect; it is then that the visible or objective organs of sense drishyangas, get the sensation chaitanya of their objects and not otherwise.

8. As it is the intellect alone which is both the subjective as well as the objective, that is both the viewer and the view, the seeing and the sight also; it comes to the same effect, that the knowledge of all these, is derived from and dependent upon the main intellect.

9. If the subjective and objective be not alike in the intellectual soul, then the subjective and intellectual soul, can have no perception of the objective and material world. (Because matter cannot enter into the intellect, but by the ideas of things which are of an intellectual nature).

10. It is from their intellectual nature, that the objective world is perceived in the subjective soul; just as a drop of water mixes with the body of waters, owing to the similarity of the natures. (Things of the same kind easily combine with one another, by their natural affinity), otherwise there is no combination of them as of two pieces of wood.

11. When there is no homogeneous affinity between two things as between the intellect and a log of wood, there can be no union between them; nor can two pieces of wood know one another, owing to their want of intellect.

12. As the two pieces of wood have <no> knowledge of one another, owing to their dull insensibility; so nothing insensible can be sensible of any thing, save the intellect which is conversant with intellectuals only.

13. The great intellectual soul, beholds the world as one with itself in its intellectual light; and sees the material bodies settled as a rock in it, without their properties of life or motion.

14. Life, understanding and other faculties, are the products of intellection, which the wonderful property of the intellect, rises spontaneously in itself.

15. The essence of Brahma exists and exhibits itself in the form of the quiescent universe, and is personified as the male 183agent of creation, by his seminal seed resembling the minute seed of a fig fruit.

16. There is first of all a small seed, which developes itself to a tree; but that first seed had another smaller seed before, from which it was produced. Thus the primary or initial seed being the minutest of the latter ones, is contained in and let out as an effluvium of the Supreme soul.

17. Brahma is the first and minutest soul of all, which gives to innumerable souls as its seeds; the inner ones abiding in the spirit of God, are known as spirit; and the grosser sorts known as things, are wrongly considered as otherwise, though they are of the same nature with their original.

18. As a thing is the same thing and not different from itself, whether it is placed above or below; so everything is the selfsame Brahma, in whatever state or form it may appear unto us.

19. As gold is no other than gold, in the various (lit. a hundred different) forms of golden trinkets; so the invariableness of the unchangeable spirit of God, continues the same in all the changing scenes and varieties in nature.

20. As the clouds of the shadowy dreams that hang over your mind, are in no way related to you; so the great bustle of creation and its dissolution, bear no relation to my vacuous soul, nor disturb the even tenor of my mind.

21. As the blueness and moistness, which are attributed to the vacuous atmosphere of heaven, are nothing in reality; and as the legions of siddha spirits, which are supposed to traverse the regions of air, are but deceptions of our eye sight; such is the pageant of the world but an empty air and fallacy of our vision.

22. It is the desire of the heart and the false fancy of the mind, that leads out within us and brings forth the fruit of the world; just as the dirty water at the bottom of the earth, moistens the seed that produces a big tree in time.

23. The wise man that forgets his egoism, becomes one with the Supreme spirit; and by reducing himself like a bit of rotten straw, becomes an anima or a minimum particle of the divine soul.

18424. I find no one among the gods, demigods and mankind in the three worlds, who wishes to approach to that Great Spirit, who has the whole world as a hair upon his body.

25. He who knows the unity of the soul of the universe, is free from the thought of a duality, in every state of his life, and wherever he may be situated. (The monotheist sees the One soul in all places and all kinds of beings).

26. Who has a great soul, and views the world and all as a mere vacuity and nothing in reality; how can he have any desire for unspiritual and sensible objects.

27. He who is indifferent to, and unconcerned with the endless particulars of the world; and who views the existent and inexistent in the same light, is truly a great soul and beyond all praise.

28. There is no living being that lives, or has any property for ever, it is only the inner consciousness that shows the various appearances in the empty space of the mind. (Note. Our friends and properties are no lasting realities, except that our minds paint them as such unto us).

29. In vain do men think of their life and death, in this world of nullity; neither of them is anything in reality, but as false as the flowing and ebbing of waters in the mirage of life.

30. Upon due examination, this error vanishes from view with its cause also; and then it appears that there is nothing as life or death, beside the existence of the imperishable one. (Note. Our life is no life, since we live in death; and our death is no death, since we die to live again).

31. That man is said to have gone across the ocean of the world, who has withdrawn himself from the sight of visibles; who is quiet and content with himself, and who while he is living, reckons himself with the dead and as nothing.

32. Our nirvána extinction is said to be the cessation of our mental actions, like the extinguishing of a burning flame or lamp; it is assimilation into the quiescent spirit of God, and continuance in the hebetude of a holy saint.

33. Again he is called the mukta or liberated, who finds no delight either in the noumenal or phenomenal (i.e. either in 185his mental functions or visual operations); but remains as quiet and quite aloof from all as the intangible vacuum.

34. I speak of my ego from my want of reason, but reason points out no egoism in me; hence the want of any sense in the word ego, makes the existence of the world quite null and void to me (who am a mere nullity myself). (So says the Persian mystic Ke man Khodra namedánam; I know not my very self).

35. The intellect is a mere vacuum, and our consciousness (which is also a vacuous substance), gives us the knowledge of the nature of our inner understanding; the mind (which is a void likewise), views the external appearances agreeably to its internal ideas (Hence all things are but airy nothing without their substantiality).

36. Now the real entity of your soul, will become truly blessed in itself, by your getting the mind, freed from all its objects at all places and times. (The mind being the mirror of soul), and by thy doing everything in the name of God. (In every work begin and end with God).

37. Whatsoever thou doest or eatest, anything thou givest or offerest in sacrifice; and whatever thou seest, killest or desirest know them all to proceed from God. (Here man’s free will is denied, and all human actions are believed as ordained by God).

38. All that we call as ourselves or yourselves and all others, what we name as space, time and the sky, mountains &c.; all these together with the actions of all, are supported by and full of the power and spirit of God.

39. The vision of our eyes and the thoughts of the mind, the world and its three times; and all our diseases, death and decay, are all the phenomena appearing in the vacuity of the Divine Intellect.

40. Remain if you can as a silent sage, unseen and unknown by men, and without any desire, thought or effort on your part; remain as a lifeless thing, and this is the extinction of a living being. (The torpidity of the body combined with mental inactivity constitutes the coolness of the soul).

18641. Be freed from your thoughts and desires, and remain fixed in the eternal One without any care for anything; you may be busy or sit easy, like the air when it breathes or is calm and still.

42. Let your manliness be above the feelings of desire and affections, and let your thoughts be directed by rules of the sástras, and your action by the motion of a clock or watch, which act their outward movement.

43. Look on all beings, without the show of fondness or disfavour (or love or hatred) to any one; be you an inconspicuous light of the world, resembling a lighted lamp in a picture (which never burns). (Here the hidden light is opposed to the sacred text. No one lights a lamp to put it under a bushel).

44. The man that has no desire nor any object in view, and has no relish in carnal and sensual enjoyments; can have no other delight except in his inquiries after truth by the light of the sástras. He who has his mind purified by the teachings of the sástras and the precepts of holy men, finds the inscrutable truth shining vividly in his consciousness of it.

Vasishtha continued:—The man whose reliance in this world is really lessened, who is free from desire and unobservant of his religious vows (for the sake of future reward), knowing them to be all in vain (i.e. the vanity of human wishes).

2. Our egoism is as the vapour of our breath, falling and sticking on the surface of glass; which when taken under consideration, proves to be a causeless sight, and vanishes to nothing at all in a moment.

3. He who is unloosed from the veil of delusion, who has numbed his rising wishes and efforts; whose soul is filled with heavenly ambrosia (i.e. full of holy delight), it is he who is said to be happy in his very nature and essence. (Blest is the enlightened and contented soul).

4. The enlightened mind, that is unshrouded from the mist of doubts or scepticism; bears resemblance with the full-moon, by illuming the sphere of its circle, with the splendour of its intelligence.

5. The intelligent man who is freed from his worldliness and doubts, who has come out of the curtain of ignorance and received the light of truth; is known as the knowing soul, shining in the sphere of the autumnal sky. (So the sruti: the knower of the soul, is as luminous as the very soul).

6. The holy man likens the pure breeze of heaven, that blows freely from the region of Brahma, without any aim and without its support; it is cool in itself and cooling and purifying every thing by its touch.

7. The desire to have an unreality, is to expect something 188that is a nullity in nature; such as the dreaming of heaven, and seeking for the son of a barren woman. (The belief in a future heaven, which is countenanced in every scheme of religion, is negatived by Vasishtha).

8. So also is the belief of this imaginary world, which appears as something in existence; such is the nature of our desire also, which attributes a substantiality to an aerial nothing.

9. Thus the world being an unreality even at present, there can be no reality in a heaven or hell in future; and yet the use of these words is as false, as the negative expression of a barren woman’s son, or a flower of the etherial arbour.

10. The world is truly the form of Brahma himself, and is neither an actual or ideal existence, nor does it rest on any support; so we are at a loss to understand what is in reality.

11. By relying in the tranquil nature of the soul, you lose your reliance in the natures of things, and your confidence in yourself; whereby you come to avoid the troubles concomitant with the whole creation and created beings. (Reliance in the soul, relieves the miseries of the world).

12. The sight of the intellect like the eye-sight of men, and the light of the luminaries of heaven, passes in a moment to the distance of millions of miles; just so does the sight of the divine intellect, stretch all over the unlimited space of creation in an instant.

13. The divine intellect is as unconceivable as the womb of vacuum, and as imperceptible as the calm and breathless air of the sky; and yet it is as joyous as a plant in full-bloom and blossom.

14. The learned know all living beings, to appertain the nature of that intellect; wherefore men of good intellect and judgment, place no faith in the creation of the world.

15. As we have no knowledge of the dreaming state in our sound sleep, nor that of sound sleep in our state of dreaming; just so is our error of creation and annihilation of the world. (That is to say: creation is as false as a dream, and extinction a quietus as sound sleep, neither of which relates to the ever-wakeful intellect of God).

18916. Error is incidental to the nature of things, and sleeping and dreaming are properties accidental to the material body; hence neither do these nor the acts of creation and annihilation, (which are likened to them), relate to the omniscient and self-sufficient intellect.

17. Error is the unreal appearance of something, which flies before examination, and vanishes ere it may be laid hold upon. The shell appearing as silver is an unreality, because you cannot get your expected silver from it. (All is not gold that glitters).

18. Whatever is not obtained and unattainable is a nullity, and whatsoever is wrongly supposed (as obtainable), is impossible to be had; the thing that is unobtainable by its very nature, is never to be expected, as anything which is otherwise than and contrary to nature.

19. It is the nature of a thing, that agrees well with it at all times; and the invariability of any thing, can never admit of variety under any circumstance.

20. All that is natural, is attended with ease and delight; but the unnatural, is full of pain and misery; know and consider it well, and do what you think best (i.e. prefer the one or the other).

21. A minute seed containing a large tree, is an instance applying to the formless spirit of God, containing the form of the universe in itself. This is a dictum of the Veda.

22. Hence visual sight and sensations, mental thought and understanding, consciousness of ego or self, and all other properties belonging to intellectual man, are the original types of the transcendent spirit, as fluidity is immanent in water. All these intellectual and spiritual properties are of an airy or vacuous nature. (The properties of the adhyatmá or intellectual soul, are but reflexions of the pratyangatmá or the spiritual soul of God).

23. As an embodied being discharges his bodily functions, by means of his material members and limbs, so doth spirit and spiritual beings conduct their spiritual functions like the air, without actually doing them? (Here hangs a long note on the mode of the spiritual actions).

19024. It is by force and power of the spirit, that we mute creatures are enabled to utter the words I, thou &c.; which are mere meaningless sounds, as those emitted by a drum and bear no sense. (Sound is the gift of God, but its sense is conventional, and determined by consent of a people).

25. An appearance which vanishes on our insight into it, must be held as no appearance at all; so the formal and phenomenal world, which vanishes into the formless and invisible spirit of God, is nothing real or substantial of itself.

26. Those who are possessed of the dream of the world, are dreaming men, who being joined together with their dreams, are never united with the spirit of God, nor do they join the society of holy divines like ourselves.

27. All these men are identic with myself in spiritual light, being one with Brahma in the tranquil and vacuous nature of the selfsame spirit (pervading alike in all). But physically considered they are different from me, in as much as they are fluctuating in their busy course, like the vacillating winds in air (while the spirit of yogis is calm and quiet).

28. I who am full of the True One, appear as a dream or dreaming man to these day dreamers; while they are in reality as nil and naught to me, as the dream of a man drowned in the depth of his sleep. (A deep or sound sleeper, sees no dream at all).

29. Whatever be their conduct in life, my business is but with Brahma, and my living and reliance in Brahma only. Let others think and see whatsoever they like and do, they are all nil and nothing to me. (Care not about what others may think of or do to you).

30. I am nothing myself, but belong to the all pervading essence of Brahma, it is by means of the divine spirit, that the body appears as something and utters the word I etc.

31. The soul that is of the nature of pure consciousness, and not subject to the contrary sense (of its materiality), hath neither its desire for enjoyments or liberation; and so also they that know the Lord, have nothing else to desire.

32. The bondage and liberation of men, being dependent 191to their own dispositions; it is folly to foster a great ambition here, as it is foolishness to look for a sea in a cow’s hoof-hole on the ground.

33. It is by restraining our natures, and mitigation of our wants, that it is possible for us to obtain our liberation here; or else no riches nor friends nor any of our endeavours, can serve to bring about the emancipation that is so eagerly sought by us.

34. The Intellect is stretched over all our thoughts about this imaginary world, as a drop of oil spreads over and diffuses itself in circles upon the surface of water.

35. As the scenes seen in a dream, seem pleasant in their recollection in the waking state; so the wise sage sees the worldly sights and his egoism also in the same light of a dream.

36. By practice of the conditions of yoga meditations alone, that the impressions of the world are so effaced from the mind, as not to leave behind any trace of them, save that of an infinite and still vacuity.

37. Whenever the true nature of the soul, appears with its solar blaze within us; it then dispels the mists of our irrational appetites, and displays an empty nihility of all entity.

38. After the desires are dead and gone and the understanding is cleared from its ignorance, the soul shines forth with the light of a burning lamp within us.

Vasishtha continued:—The sight of things, actions of the mind, the internal faculties and perceptions of the senses, being all of a superphysical nature, the true states of these categories are far removed from our knowledge, and present but a faint appearance of theirs unto us.

2. The minuteness of the superphysical or in totals, is outstretched in the forms of external or physical objects; but this extended appearance of the outer world, is a mere error (and creation of our false imagination).

3. But when this external nature disappears and subsides in the inner soul, it is then that this phenomenal world is absorbed like a dream in the sound sleeping state of the soul.

4. Our enjoyments and our greatest ailments on earth, and our kindred and relations are our strongest bondages here; our wealth is for our bale and woe, therefore hold yourself to yourself alone (and mind not about all others).

5. Know your felicity to consist, in your communion with yourself; and that you lose yourself, by your familiarity with the world. Participate with the supreme vacuum, be calm and quiet like it, and do not disturb yourself like the turbulent air or wind. (So Hafiz and the Persian mystics: If thou seekest thyself, then seek not <but> forsake all others).

6. I know not myself, nor do I understand what this visible and mistaken world may mean; I am absorbed in the calm and quiet Brahma, and feel myself as the sound Brahma himself.

7. You behold me as another person, and address me with words thou &c. in the second person; but I find myself as calm and quiet as the transcendent vacuum itself.

1938. It is in the vacuous sphere of the divine soul, that you view the false appearances (of things), as are produced therein by the misconceptions of your mind; and these errors are continually rising in your mind, in the manner of the erratic trepidations in the mind.

9. The tranquil soul of Brahma, knows (has) no effort of creation in it; nor doth the nature of creation, know the quiescent nature of Brahma. It is as the soundly sleeping soul knows no dream, nor does the dreaming man know the state of sound sleep. (The nature of Brahma is one of profound sleep, and that of creation is no other than a dream).

10. Brahma is ever wakeful, and the world is no other than a waking dream, and the living liberated man knows, the phenomenon as a reflexion of the noumenon in his tranquil understanding.

11. The intelligent man well knows the true state of things in the world, and holy men are as quiet in their souls as the autumnal sky with a moving cloud.

12. The erroneous conception of one’s egoism or personality, and that of the existence of the world; is like the impression of the relation of a battle, preserved in one’s memory or as pictured in his imaginations; in both cases truth and falsehood are found to be blended together.

13. The phenomena of the world, which is neither exhibited in the divine spirit, as an intrinsic or subjective part of itself nor has it a viewer (or subjective framer) for itself; which is neither a vacuity nor even a solidity of its nature; cannot be otherwise than an erroneous conception of the mind.

Vasishtha continued:—It is absurd to find the sense of egoism or self personality, so deeply rooted in human nature (when the real ego of the divine soul, is known to pervade all over the universe). It is therefore right that you should extinguish this unnatural egoism of yours by correcting your own nature.

2. This is done by enlightenment of the understanding, accompanied by indifference and distaste of the world; which are associated with one another as the orb of the sun with its light.

3. There is no making or maker or act of this world, nor any looker, looking or view of it; this stupendous world is altogether inadmissible, it being but a picture on the plane of vacuum.

4. There is nothing prominent in it (as it appears to the naked eye); but all is situated on a perfect level, which is the calm intellect of one unvarying Brahma.

5. The divine soul exhibits the wonders of its Intellect, in the variegated colours of its imaginations; and there is no body who can count the pictures of worlds, which are painted on the plane of the infinite space of vacuity.

6. All these aerial bodies which are countless as the flying atoms, are continually in the act of dancing and playing their parts in the open arena of Brahma; as the players exhibit their various passions and emotions and gestures and gesticulations in a theatre.

7. The seasons are dancing in circles with their towering heads, and the points of compass are turning rotund with their 195encircling arms; the lower region is the platform of this stage, and the upper sky is the awning stretched on high. (The great vacuum is the stage, and all the worlds are as players in it).

8. The sun and moon are the two playful and rolling eyes, and the twinkling stars are glistening hair on their bodies; the seven regions of air are the members of the body, and the clear and all investing firmament, is the clean apparel on it.

9. The encircling seas about the islands, are as bracelets and wristlets round their arms; and the girding mountains of lands, are as girdles around their loins; the fleeting airs are as the winds of their breath, which are constantly breathing to sustain lives of living beings, and support their bodies thereby (i.e. by the vital breath).

10. The flowers, groves and forests form the wreathed decorations on their persons; the sayings of the sástras—vedas and puránas, are their recitations, the ceremonial acts are their action, and the results of their actions (viz. happiness and misery), are the parts that all have to play (in the theatre of the world).

11. Thus is all this but a dance of puppet show presented before us, with the sport of the waters gliding with the fluidity of Brahma, and the oscillation of the playful breezes.

12. The cause of causes, is the cause of unnatural (unquiet) movements of bodies; and it is the ever wakeful intellect, that remains sleepless in the sleeping state of nature, and is waking awakener of dreams in the swapnavastha or hypnotic state of man.

13. Do you remain, O Ráma! thus sleepless in your sleeping state, and reflect on the nature of things as you see them in your dream. Be steady when you are awake, and never be drowned in your sleep nor deceived by your beguiling dreams (swap—Persian khwáb means sleep as well as dream).

14. The waking which has the semblance of sound sleep and has no liking nor cringing for anything; is said to be the 196idiosyncrasy of man by the wise and the harbinger of human liberation.

15. The living liberated man, sees his God as diffused throughout the universe; and not as the cause or instrument of its causation; and neither as witness of its sight. He does not leave to look on the outward phenomena, nor think of the inward noumenon that has displayed the whole.

16. He sees the world shining in and with the glory of God, and beholds it fair and perfect with the beauty and perfection of the Deity. (These so wondrous fair, thyself how wondrous then! Milton).

17. Viewed in the reality of Brahma, the unreal world becomes a reality; it seems then to be as tranquil as the nature of God, and the creation is seen in himself till at last all is lost in the womb of a void—vacuum, as it were hid in the hollow cavern of a rock.

18. The universe seems as womb of a luminous gem, and though it is thickly peopled everywhere, yet it is as void as empty air; it is a nil and ens at the same time, and as something and nothing of itself. (Here is a play of antithetical words and attributes applied to the world).

19. It is in esse and in posse to the minds of many, but to one who bears no duplicity in his mind, it appears as an extended reflexion of the infinite mind of One.

20. As an imaginary city, never disappears from the imagination; so the reflexion never vanishes from the mind of God; wherein all things are present at all times.

21. As the glistening gold glitters with and scatters its rays all around, without changing or wasting itself; so Brahma appearing to shine in his creation, is yet quiet and undecaying in himself.

22. The phenomenal world ever continues the same, though it is subject to incessant productions and destructions of all beings; it appears as unproduced and indestructible, and as various and variegated as the very many beings in it.

19723. Brahmá is seated in his impenetrable tranquility and in the form of the rising world, without ever rising or setting himself; He is as free and void as vacuity and without any nature or property of his own, and is known to the enlightened understanding.

Vasishtha continued:—The mind being as calm and quiet as the Intellect, there can be no difference between them; and it is impossible to assign the creation to the divine mind, in its undeveloped and tranquil state. (The difference of the mind and intellect, consists in their activity and inactivity).

2. The lighted lamp of the understanding being extinguished, the erroneous conceptions of the world vanishes into the air; and the ocular vision and mental operations, are as undulations of consciousness. (i.e. The conscious acts through all the sensible organs, mental faculties and bodily members).

3. The world bears the same relation to the supreme soul, as the fluctuation of the winds bear to air, and as the radiation of rays bears to light, which have no other causality except in themselves.

4. The world is inherent in the Supreme, as fluidity is connate with water, and vacuity is connatural with air. But why and how they are so intimately connected with one another, is quite inconceivable to us.

5. The world which is thus immanent in the vast vacuity of the great intellect, is manifest to our minds as brilliancy in a gem. (The appearance of light or lustre in a gem is no other than a property of them itself).

6. The world therefore appertains to the supreme intellect, in the same manner, as liquidity is related with water and fluctuation pertains to air, and as vacuity belongs to the infinite void.

7. As ventilation has its relation with air, so doth the world bear upon the supreme intellect; so there is no reason of supposing a duality to subsist in the unity of any two of these.

1998. The world is manifest to the sight of the ignorant, but it is frail and nebulous in the estimation of the intelligent. It is however neither manifest nor mysterious to the sapient, who believe it as an existence subsisting in the entity of the self-existent unity.

9. It is well ascertained (in every system of philosophy), that there is nothing else in existence, beside the sole intellect, which is pure intelligence, and having no beginning, middle or end of it.

10. This is the great intellect of some, and the holy spirit of others; it is the eternally omniscient Brahma according to some, and the infinite void or vacuum of vacuists. It is also called jnapti—knowledge or science by scientists.

11. Now people understand this infinite and intellectual spirit, in the sense of an intelligible being; while others suppose him as knowable in themselves, and thus trying to know, become quite ignorant of him.

12. Without the intellect there is no knowledge of the intelligibles, neither is there the faculty of intellection unless there be the intellect; as there is no air without vacuum, nor is there any air without its ventilation.

13. So it is the shadow of the great intellect, that makes our consciousness to perceive the existence of the world; and whether the world is an entity or non-entity, there is no other cause of its knowledge than the intellect.

14. It is owing to the unity of this duality (viz of the world and the spirit), that this sense of their identity is verified; nor is there any one who can make unity or duality the all pervading vacuity.

15. There is but one universal concavity, of the whole sphere of the vacuous sky, and the dualism of the air and its fluctuations, is only in words and nominal and not in reality.

16. The duality of the universe and its universal Lord, is a mere verbal and no real distinction of the one positive unity of God. It is impossible for the self-existent soul to have a counterpart of itself, except its own intellect.

20017. That which has the appearances of the world, is no world in reality, but a shadow of it; and that which is limited by space and time, cannot be the infinite and external sphere.

18. As the different forms of jewels, are related to the substance of gold (out of which they are made), so doth the world bear its relation to Brahma; whose unity admits of <neither> duality, nor the attribute of cause and effect (i.e. of the creator and creation).

19. If it be only a creation of the imagination, it is then no other than a nothing and no such thing; it is just as well as the vacuity of the firmament, and the fluidity of water and liquids.

20. As the sky bears the appearance of the sky, so doth Brahma present the sight of the world; and both of them being of the same kind (of vacuum), there can be no duality nor unity of the two in one.

21. All these are of the like kind, as the vast vacuum of itself; they are selfsame in their nature with the one all extended and transparent essence of the interminable intellect of God.

22. As all pebbles and dolls and marble statues, have the stony substance in them; and there is no relation of cause or effect in anyone of them, so these varieties of beings have no difference in them from the nature of divine essence.

23. As it is impossible for vacuity to be another thing than vacuum, and the reflexion of light is no other than the very light; so this creation resides in and radiates from the great intellect.

24. As the images carved in a stone, are of the same sort being hewn of the same substance; so O wise Ráma, all these various forms of things in the world, are lost upon their insight, into the substantiality of the all engrossing intellect of the great Deity.

25. It is the delusion of your mind, that presents to your sight all this bustle and commotion of the world, which upon your right inspection of them, must remain as mute and 201motionless as a block of wood or stone, and as imperceptible as the prospect of things to a man with his closed eyes.

26. As things absent from sight, appear to be present before one in his thought of them, both in his waking and sleeping states; so it is the misconception of the mind, that presents the phenomenals to the sight of the open-eyed man.

27. As it is by the hallucination of your mind, that you see the absent objects as present before you, both when you are awake as well as asleep; but suppress your thoughts, and you will be as inert as a stone, as in the abstracted and sound sleeping states of your mind.

28. You must not however allow your mind, become as insensible as a stone; but remain in your natural state and employ it in the service of your adorable object, with the best offerings of your reason on all things about you.

29. Adore the Supreme God of nature; for the enlargement of your understanding; and He being worshipped with your right reason and good sense, will soon reward you with the best boon of your transcendent felicity—neratisayánanda.

30. The adoration of Indra, Upendro and the other gods, is as the worshipping rotten straws with respect to that of the God in spirit; and the offering of flowers and sacrifices, are nothing in comparison to your cultivation of reason, and association with wise and learned men.

31. The Supreme God who is the giver of all blessings, being worshipped in the true light of the spirit in one’s own soul, confers his best blessing of liberation in an instant.

32. Why does the ignorant man resort to another, when his soul is the sole lord; Do you associate with the good and have your equanimity and content, and adore the Supreme soul with your best reason.

33. The worship of idols, pilgrimages and all sorts of devotion, together with all your charities, are as useless as the offering of scentless Sirisha flowers, and injurious as fire, poison and the wounds of weapons are to the body.

34. The actions of mean minded men, are as useless as ashes 202on account of their unreasonableness; let them therefore act with reason in order to render their deeds fruitful.

35. Why therefore don’t you foster your reasoning powers in your mind, by means of your knowledge of the true natures of things, and the concentration of your desires in the Supreme spirit.

36. It is by divine grace only, that the reasoning faculty has its exercise in the mind, therefore the power of reasoning is to be fostered in the mind, by sprinkling the ambrosial water of equanimity over it.

37. Until the fountain of error in the mind, is dried up by the blaze of right knowledge, so long the tendency towards the corporeal, continues to run over it in all directions.

38. Equanimity overcomes the sense of shame, sorrow, fear and envy; as the conviction of the nihility of the world and all corporeal things, removes the possibility of their existence at any time. (According to the dictum—nyáya,—násato vidyate vába. Ex nihilo nihil fit nothing comes from nothing).

39. And if it be the work of a cause, it must be the selfexistent Brahma that both at once; as the reflexion is alike the reflector, and the reflected knowledge of a pot or picture is nothing in reality. (The effect is akin to the cause agreeably to the maxim “similes similibus”).

40. Know this world to be the shadow of the intellect, as one’s feature is seen within a mirror; but the idea of the shadow of both, vanishes when one acquainted with the original.

41. For want of the knowables or objects of objective knowledge, there remains the only unknowable One, who is of the form of everlasting felicity; and this soul of the incorporeal spirit, is extended all over the infinite space in its form of perfect tranquility.

42. All knowledge, knowable and knowing, are said to be quite mute and silent in their nature (being confined in the mind); therefore it behoves you to remain as quiet and calm, as stones and pebbles and the caverns of rocks.

20343. Remain as knowing and wise man, both when you are sitting or doing anything; because wise men are persons who know the unknown, and personifications of true knowledge.

44. Remain as clear as the sphere of the sky, and be content with whatever may happen to you; when you are sitting quiet, or moving about or doing anything, and in every state of your life.

45. It is for wise men to be doing what they have to do, and whatever comes in their way; or to give up and renounce all and everything, and remain with their quiet and peaceful minds at every place.

46. Whether sitting in solitude or in silent meditation, let the wise man remain as quiet as a statue or a picture; and having repressed his imagination, let him view the world as an imaginary city or an airy nothing.

47. The waking wise man sees the rising world, as sitting down in his state of sleep; and let him view the spectacles before his eyes, as the born-blind man has no sight of anything before him.

48. The ignorant man resorting to his nirvána, has more cause of regret than the peace of his mind, at his renunciation of the world; and the preaching of bon-ideals serves rather to increase their ignorance, than enlighten in the path of truth.

49. The ignorant man who thinks himself wise in his own conceit, is deluded to greater ignorance, by thinking himself successful with his ill success.

50. The man comes to meet with his ill success, who strives to thrive by improper means; because the learned reckon all fanciful steps, as no steps at all to successfulness.

51. It is wrong to resort to nirvána-resignation, on account of some transitory mishap which ever happens to humanity. But that is known as true resignation by the wise, which a man has recourse to after his full knowledge of the errors of the world, and the indifference which he lays hold upon, at his entire disgust with and distaste of all worldly affairs.

52. Ráma, as you are delighted at the recital of tales, so should you take a pleasure in your spiritual instructions, with 204a melted heart and mind; unless you know the transparent intellect, and view it as diffused in the form of the infinite world, you cannot attain to your nirvána-extinction into it.

53. The knowledge of God, that you have gained from the vedas, is sheer ignorance, and resembles the false notion of the world, that is born blind on earth. Trample over that knowledge, and do not fall into its errors; but know God in spirit, and by your nirvána-extinction into it, be exempt from future births and transmigrations.

Vasishtha continued:—The internal sense of egoism and the outward perception of the world, vanishes into unreality upon right inspection of them; and then truth of self-consciousness appears even to the dull headed after removal of their dulness.

2. He who is freed from the fever of ignorance, and whose soul is cooled by the draught of good understanding, is known by the indication, that they bear no further thirst for worldly enjoyments.

3. It is useless to use many words by way of logomachy, when the knowledge of one’s unegoism only, is enough to lead him to the nirvána-extinction of himself.

4. As waking men do not relish the pleasure of things seen in their dream, so wise people feel no zest either for themselves or the world, which they know to be as erroneous as the sight in their sleep.

5. As one sees the chimera of a magic city in a forest, and filled with the families of Yakshas all about; so doth the living soul, look upon this world and all its contents.

6. As the deluded soul sees the Yakshas and their place of abode, as realities and stable in their nature; so it believes its egoism or personality as a reality, and the unreal world as a substantiality.

7. As the phantoms of Yakshas are seen with their false shapes in the open desert, so we see all these creatures in the fourteen worlds around us.

8. He who knows himself as nothing, and the knowledge of his ego a mere error; finds his phantasm of Yaksha to be 206no such thing in reality; and that of his mind melts into the predicament of his intellect (i.e. both of them to be the one and same thing).

9. Be you as quiet in your mind, as you are sitting still before us; by relinquishing all your fears and fancies, and renouncing all your givings and takings (to and from all persons), together with the suppression of all your desires.

10. The visible phenomenon is neither in esse nor in posse, and the whole extent of the objective world, is identic with the subjective spirit of God; or if it be impossible for the subjective reality to become the objective unreality, say then how the objective could come to being or exist.

11. As it is the humidity of the vernal season, that produces and diffuses itself in the verdure of the ground; so it is the pith and marrow of the intellect, which fills and exhibits itself in the form of creation.

12. If this appearance of the world, is no other than reflection of the intellect; why then speak of its unity or duality than knowing its identity with the sole entity, and holding your peace and tranquility.

13. Be full with the vacuous intellect, and drink the sweet beverage of spirituality (i.e. be an intellectual and spiritual being); and sit without any fear and full of joy in the blissful paradise of nirvána-extinction.

14. Why do ye men of erroneous understandings, rove about in the desert ground of this earth like the vagrant stags, that wander about the sandy deserts (appearing as sheets of sweet water).

15. O ye men of blinded understandings! Why do ye run so hurriedly with your insatiable thirst after the mirage of the world; only to be disappointed in your most sanguine expectations.

16. Why do ye, O foolish men! thirst after the mirage of the appearances and the fancies of your minds; do not waste your lives in vain toils, nor fall victims to your desires like the deluded deer.

17. Demolish the magic castle of worldly enticements, by 207the stronger power of your reason; and see how you can destroy the train of evils, which appear as pleasure at the first sight. (All apparent good is latent evil).

18. Do not look at the blue vault of heaven as a reality by thy error, it is a mere show amidst the great void of Brahma, wherefore thou shouldst fix the sight on its true aspect of vacuity (which is the real form of Brahma).

19. O ye men that are as frail and fickle and liable to fall down, as the tremulous dewdrop hanging on the edge of a leaf on high; do not sleep regardless of your fates, in the womb of this frail and mortal world (or in this world of mortality).

20. Remain always from first to last, in your true nature of calmness, without ever being unmindful of thyself; and remove the faults of the subjective and objective from thy nature.

21. The world known as a reality to the ignorant, is an utter nihility to the wise; the other one which is the true reality bears no name for itself (being called a nullity and void).

22. Break the iron fetters of appetency, which bind you fast in this world; and rise high above the heaven of heavens, as the lion mounts on the towering tops of mountains, by breaking loose from his imprisoning cage by force.

23. The knowledge of self and meity (or selfishness) is an error, and it is the peace of mind only which makes liberation; it is the essence of the yogi, wherever and however he may be situated.

24. The weary pilgrim of the world, has the following five stages for his rest; namely his nirvána or self resignation, his nirvásana want of any desire, and the absence of his triple sorrow-tritápa; occasioned by his own fault and those of others, and the course of nature.

25. The wise man is unknown to the ignorant, and the ignorant are not known to the wise; and the world is viewed in two opposite lights by them respectively, which are quite unknown to one another. (Namely, that it is a vale of tears to 208one, and a pleasure garden to the other. The one of the school of Heraclitus or the crying philosopher, and of that of Democritus the laughing philosopher).

26. The fallacy of the world having once fallen off from the mind, there is no more the appearance of any worldly thing before it; as a seafarer seeing one vast expanse of water about him, does not see the inland arms which gush out of it as its offspring.

27. After disappearance of the error of the world, from the awakened mind of the anaesthetic yogi; he sits quite insensible of it, as if it were melt into eternity.

28. As the grass and straws being burnt to ashes, we know not whether they fly and vanish away with the winds of the air; so the nature of the sage being numbed to callousness, his knowledge of the world goes to nothing.

29. It is good to know the world, as the ectype of the essence of Brahma; but the meaning of the word Brahma, being the universal soul, it does not apply in that sense to the changing world, and as the work of God.

30. As the world appears to be everlasting and unchanging to the ignorant lad, so doth it seem to the listless sage to be co-existent with its eternal cause (to whom everything is eternally present).

31. The wakeful sage keeps his vigils at that time, when it is the night of all beings to lie down in sleep; and the daytime when all creation is awake, is the night of retired saints. (The wise and ignorant are opposed to one another in their knowledge of things).

32. The wise man is active in his mind, while he seems to be sitting still and inactive in his body; and when he is waking, his organs of sense are as dormant as those of figures in a painting.

33. The wise man is as blind as one who is born blind, in his knowledge of the outer world, and has merely a faint notion of it in his mind; where it appears or not at times, like a dream in his slight and sound sleep (swapna and susupti).

20934. All the worlds and worldly things, conduce to the woe of the ignorant, who are unacquainted with and delight in untruth, and are busy with the visibles and their thoughts about them, as one with the visions in his dream.

35. As the wise man tastes no pleasure in his waking state, so must he remain insensible of them in his sleep also; but continue with undivided attention, in the meditation of the Supreme being.

36. The wise man who has curbed his desire of worldly enjoyments, and is liberated from its bonds; remains with his cool and composed mind, and enjoys the tranquility of nirvána, without his efforts of yoga meditation.

37. As the course of water is always to run downward, and never to rise upward; so the course of the mind is ever toward the objects of sense, and sensible objects are the only delight of the mind.

38. The nature of the mind, with all its thoughts of internal and external objects, is of the same kind as that of the great ocean, which is full with the waters of its tributary rivers as well as those of the internal waters.

39. As a river flows in one united course, of the waters of all its confluent streams; so doth the mind run in an unvaried course, with all its internal and external, and righteous and unrighteous thoughts.

40. Thus the mind appears as a vast and wide extended sea, and rolling on with all its indistinct thoughts and feelings, as the inseparable waters and waves of the sea.

41. In this manner, the absence of one thing causes the extinction of both, as in the case of the air and its fluctuation; either of which being wanting, there is neither the wind nor its ventilation. (Such is the intimate connection between the mind and its thought).

42. The mind and its working being one and the samething, they are both controuled at once by bringing the other under subjection; know this well, nobody should cherish any earthly desire in order to foster his mind.

21043. The mind may get its peace by true knowledge, and the mind of the wise man is destroyed of itself with all its desires, without the aid of austerities to destroy them.

44. As a man gets freed from the fear of the enmity of an enemy, by destroying his effigy made of mud by himself, so is one enabled to kill his mind, by committing himself to the Divine spirit.

45. The wise man sees the cosmos and chaos as concomitant with each other, though appear as separate. The birth and death as well as prosperity and adversity are mere error, there is nothing else beside one infinity.

46. As one has no knowledge of the dream of another sleeping by his side, and as the adult man has no fear of yaksha like timid boy; and as a giant knows no Pisacha or demon, so the wise sees no insensible world before him (but all full of the Intellect of God).

47. The ignorant think the wise as fools, and the old barren woman thinks of her conception; so one unacquainted with the meaning of a word, attempts to explain its sense (all which is absurd).

48. The understanding is ever existent, and without having its beginning and end; and nature is known to exist ever since creation has began. The word mind is meaningless and is undivided and unbounded in its nature. (The mind or understanding is everlasting but nature is not so).

49. The understanding resembles the water of the sea, and the mind and intelligence are likened to its limpid waves; how can this fluid have an end, and what is the meaning of mind, but a shape of this psychic fluid. (Here is a similarity of Vasishtha’s intellectual liquid to Stahl’s psychic fluid).

50. For all error is useless, and live to your nature for your good; and being of the nature of pure understanding, you will become as perspicacious as the clear autumnal sky. (Here is Vasishtha’s vacuism again as the ultimate perfection of men).

51. After passing the three states of waking, dreaming and deep sleep (to the fourth state of turíya or nirvána insensibility), 211there is nomore any perception of the mind or mental operation to the abstracted yogi; and then the knowledge of the endless varieties of unrealities of creation, is blown away and lost in the sight of the everlasting One.

52. Forsake the endless chain of knowables, and be attached to thy nature of the solid intellect; because all things whether internal or external, are comprehended under its knowledge.

53. Say how can you separate the objects from the mind, as you do the seed, branches and fruits from one another; the knowables are unknowable without their knowledge, and knowledge is no known category (apart from the mind).

54. The endless varieties and particulars are still and quiet in the Divine soul, which is the only entity and manifest of itself as all. The objects being but ideas in the mind and this being a negative also, they are all but errors of the brain. (The mind and its objective ideas being dependent to and identic with one another, the conception of them is altogether erroneous).

55. The mind which is the framer of objective thoughts, is a nihility of itself and an error also. The eternal spirit being the sole soul of all, it is useless to imagine the entity of the mind.

56. The objective being an erroneous notion, is but a false apparition appearing to sight, the objects also having no cause for their creation, prove the subjective mind to be a falsity likewise.

57. The mind is as fickle as the flickering lightning, and deludes us by the flashes of things of its own making.

58. The mind is nothing before knowledges of the self-existence One, nor does it then deceive us with its false shows; and this world which is the creation of the mind, disappears before the knowledge of the soul.

59. Men in vain wish to take the shell for silver, and believe the negative world as a positive one, and is found to be nothing before the light of reason.

60. The error of egoism is opposed to the verity of nirvána, 212and is the cause of misery only to mankind; the ego is verily a falsity as mirage, and a non-entity as vacuity itself.

61. The knowledge of the self or soul, removes the error of egoism; and by knowing and being full with the knowledge of the soul, one is incorporated with it, both internally as well as externally.

62. One who is unified with the universal soul, resembles a wave that mixes altogether with the main water; because the Divine soul sends its essence to all, as a tree supplies its marrow to all parts of it from top to foot.

63. There is one unchanging soul, that shines afar above the reach of our knowledge; in the same manner as the clear vault of heaven, appears at the distance of millions of miles from us.

64. There is only one unknowable and infinite Being, that is far beyond our knowledge of the knowables, and is purer and more rarefied than the all pervading vacuum.

65. Therefore knowing that pure and holy One, as both the states of knowledge and knowables (i.e. the subjective and objective); just as the clarified butter is consolidated to the compactness of stone. (The soul is solidified to matter).

66. The Divine intellect makes itself the object of its thought as a thinkable being; and the soul thinks in itself as the mind, from eternity to eternity, throughout the infinity of space. (The soul reflects in itself, as the congeries of all things of its omniscience).

67. The unintelligent Nyáya School maintains the unity and positive rest of God; and although there may be no mistake of theirs in this position, yet it is wrong to separate omniscience from the entity of Divine unity.

68. All great minded souls that are free from pride, melt away into the inscrutable quiescence of God; and those that unerring in divine knowledge, find their eternal rest in the samádhi or resignation of themselves to the Supreme spirit.

Ráma said:—Relate to me at length, O holy sage, the form of the arbour of samádhi, together with all its creepers, flowers and fruits, which supply holy men with good and refreshment, all along their lives.

2. Vasishtha replied:—Hear me relate to you about the tree of samádhi, which always grows in the forest of holy people, and is ever fraught with its luxuriant foliage and flowers and its luscious fruits.

3. The learned say, that it is some how or other, either by culture or its own spontaneity, that there grows a dissatisfaction with the wilderness of this world, in the heart of the reasonable man.

4. Its field is the heart of the wise man, furrowed by the plough of prosperity (i.e. which has had better fortune); which is watered with delight by day and night, and whose conduit is now flowing with sighs.

5. It is the heart’s regret at the world, which is the seed of samádhi or self-resignation; and it grows of itself in the ground of the contrite heart of the wise, in the forest land of reasonable men.

6. When the seed of contrite reflection, falls in the minds of magnanimous men; it must be watered with diligence and indefatigableness with the following articles. viz:—

7. The society of pure, holy and complacent men, who speak sweetly and kindly for the good of others; and whose speech serves as the sprinkling of fresh water or milk or dewdrops on the seeding grounds.

2148. And by shedding the sacred waters of the sayings of the holy sástras, all about the aqueduct, which may serve to grow the seed, by their cool and ambrosial moisture.

9. When the magnanimous soul, perceives the seed of contrite reflection fallen in the mind; he must try to preserve and foster the same with all diligence.

10. This seed is to be grown by the manure of austerities, and by the power of using other means; by resorting to and resting in places <of> pilgrimage and holy shrines, and by stretching his perseverance as his defence (or a fence about the seed-ground).

11. It is the duty of the well taught man, after the sprouting forth of the seed, to preserve it always with the assistance of his two consorts—contentment and cheerfulness.

12. He should then keep off the aerial birds of his expectations and the fowls of his affection for others, and the vultures of his desire and cupidity, from darting upon and picking up the seed.

13. Then the rajas or dust of vanity, is to swept away (from this field), by gentle acts of piety, serving as sweepers of vice and unrighteousness; and then the tamas or shades of ignorance are to be dispelled from this ground, by the ineffable light of the sun of reason—viveka.

14. Wealth and women, and all sorts of frail and fleeting enjoyments; overtake this rising germ (of godliness), as darts of lightning issuing from the cloud of unrighteousness.

15. It is by the iron rod of patience and gravity, by the muttering of mantras, and by holy ablutions and austerities, as also by the trident of the triliteral Om, that these thunderbolts are averted.

16. In this manner the seed of meditation also, being carefully preserved from neglect, sprouts forth in the germ of discrimination (viveka) with its handsome and thriving appearance.

17. The ground of the mind shines brightly, with this brilliant germ; and it gladdens the hearts of men in veneration to it, as the smiling moon-beams illume the sky.

21518. This germ shoots forth in a couple of leaves, which grow out of themselves upon it; one of them is the knowledge of sástras, and the other is the society of the good and wise. (i.e. Divine knowledge is to be gained from the study of scriptures, and attendance to the lectures of learned men).

19. Let your fixedness support the stem and height of this tree, and make your patience its covering bark; and cause your unconcernedness with the world, supply it with the moisture of indifference.

20. The tree of godliness being nourished with the moisture of unworldliness, and watered by the rain water of sástras, attains its full height in course of a short time.

21. Being thickened by the pith of divine knowledge, and marrow of good society, and the moisture of indifference, this tree attains a fixity, which is not to be shaken by the apes of passions and affections.

22. And then this tree shoots forth in luxuriant branches of wisdom, which stretches far and wide with their fresh verdure and virescent leaves, distilling their juicy sweets all around.

23. These are the branches of frankness and truth, of constancy and firmness, of equanimity and unchangeableness, of calmness and amicableness, and of kindness, self-respect and renown.

24. These branches are again adorned with the leaves of peace and tranquility, and studded with flowers of good repute and fame; wherewith this tree of godliness becomes the párijáta (or the arbour of paradise or Parnassus) to the hermits of the forests.

25. In this manner the tree of divine knowledge, being fraught with its branches, leaves and flowers; brings for the best and richest fruits of knowledge, day by day (during the life time of its possessor).

26. It blossoms in clusters of the flowers of fame, and is covered with leaves of bright qualities all over; it is profluent with the sweets of dispassionateness; and its filaments are full of the dust of intelligence.

27. It cools all sides like clouds in the rainy weather, and 216always the heat of worldly anxieties, as the moon-beams assuage the warmth of sun-shine.

28. It spreads the awning shade of harmony, as the clouds cast a cooling shadow below; it stretches a quiet composure over the mind (chitta-vritti nirodha), as an extensive cloud overspreads a still calm in the air.

29. It builds a sound and sure basis for itself, as the rocks stand on their solid bases; it lays the foundation of future rewards on high, and causes all blessings to attend upon it.

30. As the arbour of discrimination, grows higher and higher day by day; so it stretches a continuity of cooling shade, over the forest of the hearts of men.

31. It diffuses a coldness, that pacifies the heat below; and makes the plant of the understanding to shoot forth (develop), as a tender creeper juts out of the snows.

32. The deerlike mind being tired with its wanderings, about the deserts of this world; takes its rest and refuge under this cool shade; as a weary traveller, worried out from his very birth, in his journey among men, comes to take his rest at last.

33. This deer of the mind, that is galled in its mouth by browsing the thorny brambles of the forest for food, is again hunted by its enemies of the passions, which lay waiting like huntsmen, to kill the soul, as these slay the body of the stag for its skin.

34. The deerlike mind being ever impelled by its vain desires, wanders all about the desert land of this world, and pursues after the poisonous water of mirage of its egoism.

35. It sees the extended and verdant valley at distance, and is battered and shattered in its body with running after its verdure; and being harassed in search of the food and forage for its offspring, it falls headlong into the pit for its destruction.

36. Being robbed of his fortune, and put to bodily troubles, and led by thirst of gain to the ever running stream of desires, the man is at last swallowed up and carried away by the current waves.

21737. The man flies afar for fear of being overtaken by a disease, as the stag does for fear of a huntsman, but he is not afraid of the hunter of fate, that falls upon him unawares at every place.

38. The timid mind is afraid of the shafts of adverse fortune, flying from every known quarter; and of being pelt by stones flung from the hands of its enemies on every side.

39. The mind is ever hurled up and down, with the ups and downs of fortune; and is continually crushed under the millstone of his rising and setting passions (of anger and hatred &c.).

40. One who follows after thirst, without putting reliance on the laws inculcated by the great, falls headlong into the delusion of the world; as one suffers a scratch is well as wound over his body, by penetrating within the beautiful thorny creepers.

41. Having entered in the organic body of man, the mind is eager to fly away from it; but there is the ungovernable elephant of earthy desire, that stuns it with its loud shrieks (on its way).

42. There is again the huge snake of worldly affairs, which benumbs it with its poisonous breath; and so do the fairies on the face of the earth, serve to enslave the mind in love to them.

43. There is also the wild fire of anger, which boils like a smart bile with its burning flame in the human breast; and inflames the mind with endless pain, by its repeated recurrence in the bosom.

44. The desires clinging to the mind, are as gnats and fleas, biting and stinging it constantly; and its carnal enjoyments, appetites and revelries, are as shakals shrieking loudly about it.

45. It is led by virtue of its actions, to wander all about without any rest or profit to its self, and driven from place to place by the tiger like poverty, staring grimly at its face, again it is blinded amidst the mist of its affections to children and others, and lost at last in the hidden pitfall of death.

46. Again it trembles with the sense of and fear for its 218honor, which like a lion strikes tremor in its heart; while it is struck with terror at the glaring of the wolf of death at its face.

47. It is afraid of pride, as a forester in dread of dragon coming to devour him; and it fears the appetites, which with their open mouths and bloody teeth, threaten to ingulph it in ruin.

48. It is no less in fear of its female companions in youth, whose amorous embraces like gusts of wind threaten to hurl it headlong to repeated hell-pits.

49. It seldom happens, O prince! that the deerlike mind finds its rests in the arbour of godliness; as the living beings do, when they come from darkness to day light. (It ought to be, when they come from day light to repose at night).

50. O ye hearers, let your deerlike minds find that delight in the arbour of peace, whose name even is not known to the ignorant, who are deluded by their fickle and smiling fortunes, resembling the oscillating smiles of flowers.

Vasishtha continued:—O destroyer of enemies! the deerlike mind having found its rest in that sacred bower, remains quite pleased with the same, and never thinks of going to any other arbour.

2. In course of time, the tree of discriminate knowledge, brings forth its fruits; which ripen gradually with the sweet substance of spiritual knowledge in the inside.

3. The deerlike mind sitting under the goodly tree of its meditation, beholds its outstretching branches hanging downward, with loads of the fruits of merit and virtue (meaning its meritoriousness).

4. It sees people climbing in this tree, with great persistence and pains; in order to taste these sweet fruits in preference to all others (because merit is preferable to reward).

5. Worldly peoples decline to ascend the foot of the tree of knowledge, but those who have mounted high upon it, never think of ever coming down from the high position which they have attained.

6. For he who has ascended on the tree of reason or knowledge, in order to taste its delicious fruits, forgets the relish of his habitual food, and forsakes the bondage of his former deserts, as a snake casts aside his slough or skin.

7. The man who has risen to a high station, looks at himself and smiles to think, how miserly he has passed so long a period of his past life.

8. Having then mounted on the branch of fellow feeling, and putting down the snake of selfishness under his feet, he seems to reign in himself, as if he were the sole monarch over all.

9. As the digits of the moon decrease and disappear in the 220dark fortnight, so the lotuses of his distress are lost in oblivion; and the iron fetters of his thirst after greed are rubbed out day by day (as he advances in his yoga).

10. He heeds not what is unattainable, nor cares about what is not obtained; his mind is as bright as the clear moon light night, and his heart is quite cold, in all its passions and affections.

11. He sits poring upon the sages of the scriptures, and meditates in silence in their profound sense; he observes with extensive view the course of nature, from the highest and greatest objects to the mean and minute.

12. Looking at the aforesaid septuple ground of his past follies, full with thick forests of poisonous fruits and flowers; he sits smiling looking upon them in derision (for having fled from their infection).

13. Having fled from the tree of death, and alighted on that of life, his aspiring mind like a flitting bird, rises by degrees to its higher branches, and there sits delighted as a prince in his elevated station.

14. Thence he looks down upon the family and friends, and upon the wealth and property (he has left behind); as if they were the adjuncts of former life, or as visions in his dream.

15. He views with coldness his passions and feelings, his fears, hopes, his errors and honors, as actors (dramatis personae), acting their several parts in the drama of his life. (The world is a stage, life a play, and the passions are players in it).

16. The course of the world is as that of a rapid river, running onward with its furious and mischievous current; and laughing with its frothy breakers, now swelling highland then sinking at once.

17. He does not feel any craving for wealth, wife or friends in his breast, who lives dead to his feelings as an insensible corpse (or forgets himself to a stone).

18. His sight is fixed only on that single fruit on high, which is the holy and conscious soul or intellect; and with his sole object in his view, he mounts high on the higher branches of this tree of life.

22119. He bears in his remembrance, the blessings of the preceding step of his yoga meditation, which is one fraught with the ambrosia of contentment; he remains as content at the loss of his riches, as he felt himself glad at their gain before.

20. In the callings of his life, as also to the calls of his private and public interest; he is as displeased and annoyed, as one who is untimely roused from his wholesome sleep.

21. As a weary traveller fatigued with his long and tiresome journey, longs for his rest from cessation of his labour; so a man tired with his repeated journey through life by cause of his ignorance, requires his respite in nirvána (or extinction of the trouble and transmigration in this troublesome world).

22. As a flame of fire is kindled by the wind of breath and without the help of fuel, so let him kindle the flame of his soul within by the breath of respiration; and be united with the Supreme spirit.

23. Let him check per-force his yearning after anything, which falls of itself before his sight; although he is unable to prevent his wistful eye, from falling upon it. (Look on all things, but long after nothing).

24. Having attained this great dignity, which confers the fruits of best blessings on man, the devotee arrives to the sixth stage of his devotion, whose glory no language can describe.

25. Whenever he happens to meet with some unexpected good, which fortune presents unto him he feels a repugnance to it, as the traveller is loathe to trust the mirage in a barren desert.

26. The silent sage who is full with divine grace within himself, attains to such a state of ineffable felicity; as the weary and exhausted traveller finds in his sweet sleep, over the bustle of the busy world.

27. He—sage having arrived at this stage of his devotion, advances towards this attainment of the fruit of spiritual bliss, as an aerial siddha spirit has on its alighting on the Mount Meru, or a bird of air on its dropping down on the top of a tree.

22228. Here he forsakes all his thoughts and desires, and becomes as free as the open air and sky; and then he takes and tastes and eats and satiates himself, with his feeding freely upon this fruit.

29. It is the leaving off of every object of desire day by day, and living the live long day with perfect composure with one’s self; that is termed the attainment of godliness or full perfection in life.

30. The means of attaining to this state of perfection, is the doing away with all distinctions and differentiations, and remaining in perfect union and harmony with all and every thing; this state of the mind is said by the learned, to be the assimilation and approximation to the nature of God, who is ever pure and the one and same in all from eternity to eternity.

31. One disgusted at his desire of the world and its people, and abandoning his desire of wife and family; and forsaking his desire of acquiring riches, can only find his rest in this blissful state.

32. The ultimate union of both the intellect and its true knowledge (i.e. of both the subjective and objective) in the Supreme spirit; serves to melt away all sense of distinction, as the solar heat melts down the frozen snow.

33. The nature of one who has known the truth, is not comparable with the state of a bent bow, which becomes straight after it is loosened; but to that of a curvilinear necklace, which retains its curvature, even after it is let loose on the ground. (i.e. The true convert does not slide back, like the back sliding hypocrite).

34. As a statue is carved in wood or stone, and stands expect to view in bas-relief therein; so is the world manifest in the great pillar of the Supreme spirit, and is neither an entity nor nullity of itself.

35. We cannot form any idea of it in the mind, as to how the material subsists in the immaterial spirit; nor is it proper to entertain the notion, of what is unknowable by our ignorance of the nature of the selfexistent One.

22336. Whoso is known to have his utmost indifference to the visibles, is capable of knowing the invisible spirit; but the unenlightened soul, is incapable to forsake and forget the visibles (in order to see the spirit).

37. The knowledge of the phenomenal is utter ignorance, but that which is never lost to our consciousness is what is meant by samádhána, and our reliance in the same, constitutes what is called samádhi. (This passage has a long explanatory note which is here omitted).

38. When the viewer and view (or the subjective and objective), are viewed in the same light of identity, and so relied upon by the mind; it is then called samádhána or the union of both into one, and it is this belief whereupon the yogi places his rest and reliance.

39. He who has known truth, finds a distaste in the visibles of his own natures (i.e. is naturally averse to them); and wise men make use of the word phenomenalism for ignorance of truth.

40. Fools only feed upon the objects of sense, from their ignorance of truth, but the wise men have a natural distaste for them; for they that have the relish of sweet nectar in them, cannot be disposed to taste the sour gruel or the acrid ale.

41. The uncovetous man being content in himself, is quite devoid of the triple desire mentioned before; but the wise man who is not inclined to meditation, is addicted to the increase of his wealth.

42. Self-knowledge results from absence of cupidity, and whoso loses his self by his venality, hath neither his self-possession, nor any fixed position to stand upon (but is led on everywhere by his covetousness to the service of others).

43. The learned man does not prosper in his meditation, though he may employ all his knowledge to it; because he is divided in himself by his various desires, though he was made as the whole and undivided image of himself (i.e. his maker).

44. But the soul which is freed from its desires, comes of itself in the possession of endless bliss, by being dissolved in the source of it in its meditation, as the flying mountains were 224fixed upon the earth (by having their wings chopped off by the thunder of Indra). (So the fickle mind is fixed, by lopping off its desires).

45. As the soul becomes conscious of holy light in itself, it loses the sense of its meditation and is wholly lost in that light; as a drop of clarified butter offered in sacred oblation, is burnt away in the sacrificial fire.

46. It is the entire inappetency of sensible objects, which constitutes the peace and quietude of the mind; and he who has accustomed himself to this habit, is entitled to our regard as a venerable and holy divine.

47. Verily the man that has gained his proficiency, in the suppression of his appetite for worldly objects; becomes as firm and sedate in his holy meditation, that he is not to be shaken from it, by the joint power of Indra and those of the Gods and demigods. (The greedy are as sacrificial beasts, for the food of Gods and others).

48. Resort therefore to the strong and adamantine refuge of meditation, and know that all other meditations beside that of knowledge, is as frail and fragile as straws.

49. The word world is used in reference to ignorant people, and the wise are not the subject of its meaning; the difference of the words ignorant and wise, consists in the one’s forming the majority of mankind and the other their lords (i.e. Wise men rule over the ignorant mob, who compose the world).

50. Let wise men resort to and rest at that place, where all meet in union in one self-shining unity; whether it be on the ground of the understanding of the saintly siddhas, or those of viveki sages. (This is an admonition to every one, for his reliance in one catholic religion of unity, of any nation or country).

51. No one has yet been able to ascertain the unity or duality of the real or unreal (i.e. of the spirit and matter) and the way to learn it, is firstly by means of the sástras, and next by association with wise and holy men.

52. The third and best means to nirvána is meditation, which is arrived at one after the other; and then it will appear 225that the immense body of Brahma (i.e. the infinite spirit), takes upon it the name and nature of the living soul.

53. The world appears in various forms by the concourse of the like and unlike principles, and becomes divided into eighteen regions, by the omniscience of God that knows the past, and future.

54. Both the two things namely knowledge and dislike of the world, are attained by attainment of either of them; and the thoughts of our mind, which fly with the winds in open air, are burnt away by the fire of knowledge.

55. The worlds like flying cottons, having fled into the supreme soul, nothing is known where they are flown at last; and the gross ignorance of man is not removed by knowledge, as the dense snow is not to be melted by the fire in a painting.

56. Though the world is known to be an unfounded fallacy, yet it is hard to remove this error from the mind; but on the other hand it increases like the knowledge of ignorant men of it, by their ignorance.

57. As the knowledge of the ignorant, tends the more to increase their ignorance; so the wiseman comes to find the meaninglessness of the knowledge of ignorant people with regard to the world.

58. The existence of the three worlds, is known to us only as they are represented in our knowledge of them; they are built in vacuity as aerial cities, and stretched out before us as empty dreams in our sleep.

59. The knowledge of the world appears as false, as the conception of fanciful desires in the minds of the wise; for neither the entity of the world nor that of his self-existence, is perceptible in the understanding of the wise man.

60. There is only the existence of one supremely bright essence, which shines in our minds; which bears resemblance to pieces of wet or dry wood, in as much as they are moistened or exsiccated by the presence or absence of the divine knowledge.

61. To the right understanding the whole world with all its living beings, appears as one with one’s self; but men of dull understandings, bear no mutual sympathy to one another. 226The knowledge of twain, tends to difference and disunion betwixt man and man; but that of oneness unity leads men to fellow-feeling and union.

62. The wise man possessing a greater share of wisdom, becomes as one with the Supreme One; and does not take into consideration, the question of the entity or nullity of the world.

63. As the man who has arrived at the forth stage of yoga, takes no notice of the waking, dreaming and sleeping states of man; so the reasonable man takes into no account the vain wishes of his heart, and false fancies of his mind.

64. Hence the deerlike mind does not choose its annihilation, (or the loss of its entity); for the sake of its liberation, (which is an ideal and negative felicity), and has no reality in it.

65. Thus the tree of meditation produces of itself the fruit of knowledge, which is ripened by degrees and in course of time to its lusciousness; and then the deer like mind drinks its sweet juice of divine knowledge to its satiety, and becomes freed from its fetters of earthly desire.

Vasishtha continued:—After the Supreme being which is the object and fruit of meditation, is known as present in the mind, and the bliss of release from flesh is felt within, all sensations are lost altogether, and the deerlike mind becomes spiritualized into the Supreme essence.

2. It then loses its deership of browsing the thorns, as the extinguished lamp loses its flame; it assumes a spiritual form and shines with exhaustless blaze.

3. The mind in order to attain the fruit of its meditation, assumes a firmness resembling that of the mountains, after their wings were mutilated by the thunder bolts of Indra.

4. Its mental faculties fly away from it, and there remains only its pure consciousness in it; which <is> irrepressible and indivisible and full with the supreme soul in itself.

5. The mind being roused to its reasonableness (from its former state of material dulness); now rises as the sentient soul, and dispensing its clear spiritual light, from its identity with the increate and endless One.

6. It then remains in that state, in perfect freedom and from all wishes and attempts; it is assimilated with the everlasting spirit of God, in its form of eternal contemplation.

7. Until the great Brahma may be known, and our rest may be found in that Blessed state; so long the mind remains a stranger to meditation, by reason of its dwelling on other thoughts.

8. After the mind has obtained its union with the supreme One, we know not whither the mind is fled; and where our 228wishes and actions, our joys and griefs, and all our knowledge fly away.

9. The yogi is seen to be solely absorbed in his meditation, and sitting steadfast in his contemplation, like a wingless and unmoving mountain.

10. Loathe to his sensual enjoyments, and blunt to all sensibilities; averse to the various sights and objects of senses, the yogi is pleased only with himself.

11. With his sensations numbed by degrees, and his soul resting in tranquility; and his mind dead to the enticements of wealth and sensible objects; the yogi is pleased with himself.

12. All men of right understanding, are fully aware of the tastelessness of the objects of sense; and remain like human figures in painting, without doting or looking upon them.

13. The man that is master of himself, and has mastery over his soul and mind; disdains to look upon earthly treasures, for his want of desire for them; he is firmly fixed in his abstraction, as if he were compelled to it by force of another.

14. The soul immerged in meditation, becomes as full as a river in the rainy season; and there is no power that can restrain the mind, which is fixed in its meditation.

15. When the mind is immerged in deep meditation, by its cool apathy to all sensible objects, and feels an utter indifference to all worldly affairs, it is then said to be in its samádhi and no other.

16. It is a settled distaste to the objects of sense, that constitutes the pith and marrow of meditativeness; and the maturity of this habit, makes a man as compact as adamant.

17. It is therefore the distaste to worldly enjoyments, that is the germ of meditation, while it is the taste for such pleasures, which binds a man fastly to it.

18. Full knowledge of truth, and the renunciation of every desire at all times; lead men to the nirvána meditation, and to the infinite joy of the divine state.

19. If there is inappetency of enjoyments, why think of anything else? and if there be no such inappetency, what avails any other thought or meditation?

22920. The well intelligent sage who is freed from his relishing the visibles, is situated in his position of unflinching meditation, and in the enjoyment of his continuous reveries.

21. He whom the visibles do not delight, is known as the most enlightened man; and he who takes no delight in the enjoyables, is deemed as the full wise man.

22. He who is disposed to repose by nature, can have no inclination to enjoyments; it is unnatural to indulge in carnal enjoyments, but the subdued nature needs nothing to enjoy.

23. Let men resort to their reflection, after their hearing of a lecture, reciting the scripture, and muttering the mantras and uttering their prayers; and when tired with meditation, let them return to their lectures and recitals.

24. Sitting in meditation in an indefatigable mood, and resting at agreeable ease with freedom from fear and care; remaining in rapturous hypnotism, with a quiet and composed mind, likens the fair autumnal sky with its unclouded and serene aspect.

Vasishtha continued:—Hear now the manner and the measures which the yogi adopts to himself, in order to obtain his release from his cumbrous burthen and troubles of the world.

2. As the germ of discrimination springs in the mind at first, by reason of the disparagement of the world (for the multiplicity of its faults, or from some cause or other).

3. All good people, resort under the wide stretching shade of this (fullgrown) tree; as the weary and sunburnt traveller halts under the cooling shade of trees on their way.

4. The wise man shuns the ignorant at a distance, as the wayfarer casts aside the sacrificial wood; because the worshippers of the gods only observe the ceremonious rites of holy ablutions and almsgivings, austerities and offering of sacred oblations.

5. In his fair, just, polite and undissembling behaviour, and in his placid and pleasing countenance, he resembles the fair moon with her ambrosial beams.

6. He acts with sound wisdom and prudence, is polite and civil in his manners, is prompt in serving and obliging others, is holy in his conduct and humorous in his discourse.

7. He is as clear and cold, soft and pleasing as fresh butter, and his company is delightsome to people even at his very first appearance.

8. The deeds of wise men are as pure and grateful to mankind, as the dews of moon-beams, are refreshing and refrigerating of whole nature.

9. No one sleeps so delighted on a bed of flowers, and in 231a flower garden devoid of fears; as he rests secure in the society of reasonable and pious men.

10. The society of holy and wisemen, like the pure waters of the heavenly river, serve to cleanse the sins and purify the minds of the sinful.

11. The society of the holy recluse and liberated men, is as cooling as a refrigeratory or ice house.

12. The great and high delight, which the holy sage feels in his heart, is not to be enjoyed in the company of fairies among the gods, gandharvas and human kind.

13. It is by continued performance of proper acts, that the pious devotee attains his knowledge and clearness of understanding; when the significance of the sástras, is reflected as clearly in the tablet of his mind, as the reflections of objects are seen in a reflector.

14. A good understanding moistened by instruction of the sástras, thrives in the mind of a holy man, as a plantain tree grows in the forest.

15. The mind which is cleared by good judgment, retains the clear impression of everything in it, as a mirror reflects the images of objects on its surface.

16. The wise man whose soul is purified by the association with holymen, and whose mind is cleansed with the lavation of scriptural instruction, is as a sheet of linen cloth flaming with fire.

17. The holy saint shines with the effulgence of his person, as the sun does with his golden beams, diffusing a pure light all around the world.

18. The wise man follows the conduct of holy sages, and the precepts of the sástras in such a manner; as to imitate and practice them himself.

19. Thus the tyro becomes by degrees, as good as the good and great objects of his imitation, and as full of knowledge as the sástras themselves; and having then put down all the enjoyments of life under him, he appears to come out of a prison, by breaking down his chains and fetters.

23220. He who is practiced in reducing his appetites and enjoyments day by day, resembles the crescent moon daily increasing in brightness, and enlightening his family, as the moon throws her lustre over the stars about her.

21. The penurious miser (who amass their wealth without enjoying it), is always as sulky as the face of eclipsed moon, and never as smiling as the countenance of the liberal, which is as bright as the face of the moon when freed from eclipse.

22. The liberal man spurns the world as mere straw, and becomes renowned among the great for his munificence; he resembles the kalpa plant of paradise, which yields the desired fruit to every body.

23. Though one may feel some compunction in his mind, at the wilful abdication of his possessions; yet the wise man is glad at his having no property at all. (It is better to have no property, than to regret at its loss or resignation).

24. Any one may laugh at his prior acts, if he will come to know what he was and he is; as a low chandal by being játismara, laughs in disgust in making comparison of his past birth with that of the present.

25. Even the siddhas or holy saints, repair with wonder to see the yogi for their esteem of him; and look upon him as the moon risen on earth, with their delighted eyes.

26. The yogi who is ever accustomed to despise all enjoyment, and has attained his right judgement, does not hold in estimation any of the enjoyables in life, though it presents itself to him in the proper manner.

27. The holy man whose soul is raised and enlightened (in time), feels his former enjoyments to become as dull and insipid to him, as a luxuriant tree becomes dry and withered in autumn.

28. He then resorts to the company of holymen, for his greatest and lasting good; and becomes as sane and sound, as the sickman becomes hale by his abstinence and recourse to physicians.

29. Being then exulted in his mind, he dives into the deep 233sense of the sástras; as a big elephant plunges into a large lake of clear water.

30. It is the nature of virtuous men, to deliver their neighbours from danger and calamity; and to lead them to their well being and prosperity, as the sun leads people to light.

31. The reasonableman becomes from before, averse to receive anything from another, and lives content with what is his own.

32. He hates to taste the delicacies of others, from his satiety with the ambrosial draughts of contentment; and prepares himself for his abandonment of what he is already possessed of himself.

33. He is accustomed to give away his gold and money to beggars, and beg his vegetable food from others; and by habitual practice of giving away whatever he has, he is even ready to part with the flesh of his body.

34. Verily the man of subdued mind and holy soul, gets over the hidden traps of ignorance with as much ease, as a running man leaps over a pitfall (goshpada).

35. The holyman being accustomed to despise the acceptance of wealth from others, learns betimes to slight the possession of any wealth for himself also.

36. Thus the aversion to the wealth and possessions of others, leads the wise and holy man by degrees to be averse to the retaining of anything for himself.

37. There is no such trouble in this earth, nor any great pain in the torment of hell, as there is in the punishment of earning and accumulation of wealth.

38. Ah! how little are the money making fools aware, of the cares and troubles which they have to undergo in their restless days and nights, in their servitude for money.

39. All wealth is but lengthening woe, and prosperity is the harbinger of adversity; all enjoyments and aliments are but ailments, and thus every earthly good turns to its reverse.

40. One cannot have a distaste to sensual enjoyments, as long he thinks on the objects of sense; and so long as he has a 234craving for riches, which are the spring of all evils and bane of human life.

41. He who has got a relish for his highest heavenly bliss, looks upon the world as a heap of straw, and riches as the fire that kindles them to a flame. Avoid this fire and be cool and quiet.

42. The meaning of wealth is known to be the source of all evils in the world, and as the cause of all wants and disorders and even of diseases and death. It is also the cause of oppression and plunder, of incendiarism and the like, and their consequent poverty and famine.

43. In this mortal world of the death and diseases of living beings, there is one elixir which confers perpetual health and life to man, and this is his contentment only. (Hence called the ambrosia of life, santoshámritang).

44. The vernal season is charming, and so are the garden of paradise, the moon-beams and fairies, but all combine in contentment only, which is alone capable of yielding all the delights.

45. The contented soul likens a lake in the rains, when it is full as it is deep, and as clear and cooling as the nectarious beverage of the gods.

46. The honest man is strengthened by his contentment and flourishes with full glee, as a flower tree is decked with blooming blossoms in the flowering season.

47. As the poor emmet is likely to be crushed under the foot of every passer, in its ceaseless search and hoarding of food; so the greedy and needy man is liable to be spurned, for his incessant wanderings after paltry gains and lucre.

48. The deformed and disfigured beggar, is as a man plunged in a sea of troubles, and buffeting in its waves without finding a support for rest, or any prospect of ever reaching to the shore.

49. Prosperity like a beauty, is as frail and fickle as the unstable waves of the ocean; what wiseman is there that can expect to find his reliance in them, or have his rest under the shade of the hood of hideous serpent? (This simile is borrowed 235in the Nyáya wherein world is said kupita phani phaná chháyeva).

50. He who knowing the pains attending on the gaining, keeping and losing of money, still persists to pursue in its search, is no better than a brute, and deserves to be shunned by the wise as unsociable.

51. He who mows down at once the growing grass of his internal and external appetites, from the field of his heart, by the means of the scythe of insouciance, gets it prepared for reception of the seeds of Divine knowledge.

52. Ignorant people take the world for a reality, and wise men also conduct themselves under this supposition though they are well aware of its unreality; and this owing to their neglect of practicing what they are taught to believe. (The wise and foolish are in the same footing, by equally unwise conduct in life).

53. The sum of the whole is that, it is the resignation of the world which leads men to the society of sages and study of the scriptures; and then by reliance in the holy precepts, one abandons his worldliness, and at last his firm dislike of the temporal, leads him to seek his spiritual bliss.

Vasishtha continued:—After a man has come to his resignation of the world, and to his association with holy men; and after he has well digested the precepts of the sástras, and abandoned his carnal appetites and enjoyments:—

2. And then having a distaste to worldly objects, and gained the reputation of being a man of probity; and being outwardly an inquirer after truth, and inwardly full of enlightenment.

3. He does not long for wealth, but shuns it as one flies from darkness; he gives away whatever he has in hand, as a man casts aside the dry and rotten leaves from his house.

4. Every one is seen to be worn out with toil and care, for the supportance of his family and friends throughout his life; and yet like a weary traveller labouring under his load, he is rarely found to cast off his burthen, as long he has strength to bear it.

5. A man in full possession of his senses, and the sensible objects all about him, is yet quite insensible of them, if he is but possessed of the calm, quiet of his mind.

6. Wherever he remains, whether in his retired solitude or remote from his country; or in a forest or sea or distant deserts or gardens; he is perfectly at home in every place.

7. But he is not in love with any place, nor dwells secure in any state whether it be the company of friends in a pleasure garden, or in learned discussions in the assembly of scholars.

8. Wherever he goes or stays, he is always calm and self-governed, silent and self communing; and though well informed himself, yet he is ever in quest of knowledge by reason of his inquiry after truth.

9. Thus by his constant practice, the holy sage sits on the low ground or in water, and reclines himself in the supreme One in the state of transcendent bliss.

23710. This is the state of perfect quietude, both of inner soul as also of the outward senses; and the yogi remains quite insensible of himself, with his consciousness of indubitable truth: (of the unity of his soul with the Supreme spirit).

11. This transcendent state, consists in the unconsciousness of sensible objects; and the consciousness of a vacuum full with the presence of omniscience spirit (or soul).

12. Firstly one’s concern with the knowledge of unity, and lastly his unconsciousness of himself and everything besides, whether of a void or substance, constitutes what is called the state of highest felicity.

13. The saint who is mindless of everything, and rests in his consciousness; has no taste of (or desire for anything), but remains as a block of stone amidst the encircling water (without tasting it).

14. The self-conscious person who has attained to that exclusive state of perfection (nirodha-padam), which shuts out all objective thoughts from it, remains silent and slow, and quite unmindful of everything beside itself; and he reposes in his own being (i.e. rests in himself), as a human figure does in its picture.

15. He who has known the One that is to be known, sees in his heart all things as nothing; all magnitudes dwindle into minuteness (before his sight of the boundless majesty of God), and the whole plenum appears as vacuum to him.

16. The knower of God, has no more the knowledge of himself or others (the ego, tu, and the world besides); and all space and time and existence appear as non-existent before him.

17. The seer who has seen the glory of God, is situated in the region of light; and like a lighted lamp, he dispels his inner darkness, together with all his outward fears, animosities and affections.

18. I bow down before that sun like sage, who is set beyond darkness on every side, and is raised above all created things; and whose great glory is never liable to be darkened.

19. I cannot describe in words the most eminent state of 238divine seer, whose soul is fraught with divine knowledge, whose mind is quite at rest, and whose knowledge of duality is wholly extinct.

20. Know, O most intelligent Ráma, that the Great Lord God is pleased to bless him with the bliss of his final extinction in him; in reward of his serving him by day and night with sincere devotion.

21. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me, O chief of sages, who is this Lord God, and how He is propitiated by our prayers and faith in him; explain this mystery to me, for you are acquainted with all truth.

22. Vasishtha replied:—Know, O highly intelligent Ráma, that the Lord God is neither at a distance nor unattainable by us; the Lord is the all knowing soul, and the soul is the great God.

23. In Him are all things, and from him have come all these; He is all, and everywhere with all; He is immanent in and self same with all, he is everlasting and I bow down to him.

24. From him comes out this creation, as well as all its change and dissolution; He is the uncaused cause of all, which rise as winds in the hollow vault of heaven.

25. Him do all these creatures—the moving as well as unmoving, worship always (in their hearts), as well as they can; and present them the best offerings that they can find.

26. So men by adoring him in their repeated births, with all their hearts and minds and in the best manner that they can; propitiate at last the supreme object of their adoration.

27. The great Lord God and Supreme soul, being thus propitiated by their firm faith; sends to them at last his messenger (or angel), with his good will for their enlightenment.

28. Ráma asked:—Tell me, great sage, how does the lord God and supreme soul, send his messenger to man; and who is this messenger, and in what manner he throws the light in the mind.

29. Vasishtha replied:—The messenger sent by the divine spirit, is known by the name of wise discrimination, which 239shines as coolly in the cell of the human heart, as the moonlight does in the clear firmament.

30. It is this which awakens and instructs, the brutish and cupidinous soul to wisdom, and by this means saves the unwise soul, from the turbulent ocean of this world.

31. This enlightening and intellectual spirit, residing in the human heart; is denominated as the pranava or adorable, in the Veda and Vedic sástras.

32. This holy spirit is propitiated daily, by men and the serpent tribe, and by gods and demigods also; by their prayers and oblations, by their austerities and almsgivings, as also by their sacrificial rites and recitals of the scriptures.

33. This Lord has the highest heaven for his crown, and the earth and infernal regions for his footstools; the stars glisten as hairs on his person; his heart is the open space of the sky, and all material bodies, are as the bones of his body.

34. He being the intellectual soul of all, spreads undivided every where; He is ever wakeful, and sees and moves every thing, as it were with his hands and feet, and his eyes and ears and the other organs of his body.

35. The living or sentient soul, being awakened to wisdom, by destroying the demon of the sensualistic mind; takes upon it a bright spiritual form and becomes a spiritual being.

36. Now shun the various wishes of your heart, which are ever changeful and full of evils; and exert your manliness to exult your soul to the state of meeting with divine grace.

37. The rambling mind resembles a demon, buffeting with the waves of furious ocean of the world; it is the enlightened soul only that shines like a luminary, over the dark dreary and dismal waste of the earth.

38. See thy mind is wafted away by the gale of its greediness, to the vast billowy ocean of the world; and hurled to the deep cavity of its whirlpools, from whose depth no man can rise again.

39. You have the strong ship of your divine wisdom alone, that can get you across the sea of your ignorance; and bear you up above the billows of your carnal appetites and passions.

24040. In this manner the lord being propitiated by his worship, sends his holy spirit as his messenger, for sanctification of the human soul; and thus leads the living being to his best and most blest state, by the gradual steps of holy society, religious learning, and the right understanding of their esoteric and spiritual sense.

Vasishtha continued:—Those that are stanch in their discernment of truth, and firm in the abandonment of their desires, are truly men of very great souls, and conscious of their greatness in themselves.

2. The vast extent of magnanimity of noble minded men, and the fathomless depth of their understanding, is even greater than the space occupied by the fourteen worlds. (The unbounded mind of the divine Newton, comprehended the boundless with all the hosts of heaven in its fathomless depth).

3. Wise men having a firm belief in the erroneous conception of the reality of the universe, are quite at rest from all internal and external accidents, which overtake the unwary ignorant as sharks and alligators. (The sea of ignorance abounding with sharks of casualties).

4. What reliance is there in our hope or desire for anything in this world, which is as tempting and deceitful, as the appearance of two moons in the sky, of water in the mirage, and the prospect of a fairy city in the air. (Here the falsity applies both to worldly things as well as our desire for them, and means the unrealizeableness of unrealities).

5. Desires are as vain as the empty void, owing to the nullity of the mind in which they arise; the sapient therefore are not led away by their desires, which they know, have their origin in the unreal and vacant mind. (The yogi who has arrived at the state of his inappetency in the seventh stage of yoga, never falls back to his desires any more).

6. The three states of waking, dreaming and sound sleep, are common to all living beings at large; but that state which 242is beyond those triple functions, and is all seeing and all knowing, without its being seen or known in the state or nature of the Supreme being (whose omniscience neither wakes, nor dreams nor sleeps at any time).

7. The soul in its enraptured state sees the world as a collection of light, issuing from gems of various kinds; and the human soul as a reflexion of that light, and not as a solid or earthly (material) substance.

8. The phenomenal world presenting its various appearances to the eye sight, is no more than an empty vacuity; and the varieties of light and lightsome bodies which appear in it, are no other than reflexions of the rays of the vast mine of brilliant gems, which is hid under it, and shoots forth its glare in the open air.

9. Here there is no other substance in reality, neither the vast cosmos nor the boundless vacuity itself; all this is the glare of that greatest of gems, whom we call the great Brahma, and whose glory shines all around us.

10. The created and uncreated all is one Brahma alone, and neither is there any variety or destructibility in these or in him. All these are formless beings, and appear as substantial ones in imagination only, as the sun beams paint the various figures in empty clouds in the air. (Note. Whereas there is no variation in God, there is neither the creation nor destruction of any thing at all; these are but creations of imagination, and evolutions of the infinite mind of the eternal God).

11. Thus when the imaginary world appears to blend with the etherial void, this solid mass of the material world, will then vanish into nothing.

12. So the whole proving to be a perfect unsubstantiality, it is quite impossible for it to admit any property or predicate whatever (whether material or immaterial), which is usually attributed to it; because there is no probability of any quality belonging to an absolute nothing, as it is impossible for a bird of air to alight upon, or find a resting place in an air-grown tree.

24313. There is no solidity of anything, nor is there a vacuity at all; the mind also is itself a nullity but that which remains after all these, is the only being in reality, and which is never inexistent at any time.

14. The soul is one alone and without its variation, and has the consciousness of all varieties in itself, and these are inherent in its nature, as all the various forms of jewelleries are ingrained in a lump of gold.

15. The sapient sage who remains in his own essential nature, finds his egoism or personality, together with the consciousness of his mind and the world besides, all dwindle into himself; it is difficult to describe the mind of wise man, which remains identified with the nature of the self-existent being.

16. The understanding is perplexed and confounded in itself, by observation of the sward nature of things on all sides; and requires to be slowly and gradually brought to the knowledge of truth, by means of right reason and argument.

17. It is by abstracting the mind, from its dwelling or visible nature—the production of Virát; and leading it to the contemplation of the spiritual cause of these works (i.e. the sutrátma), that the true knowledge of the author of the present, past and future worlds can be arrived at.

18. He is known as a wise sage, whose well discerning soul has perceived the truth in itself; and that has found his rest in the One unity, has no perception of the visible world, and all its endless varieties (which are attributed to Virát).

19. All the aforesaid sayings which are given here by way of advice, are perceived by the intuition of the wise man, as the wise sayings of good people, are self-evident of themselves.

20. The substance of all this is that, there is no bulk or magnitude of beings in general, nor its absence either as an entire vacuum; therefore there is neither a gross or airy mind also, but the One that exists after all, is the true and ever existent entity.

21. This entity is Intelligence, which is conversant with all 244the intelligibles in itself; its manifestation in the form of our senses is fraught with all our woe, while its disappearance leads to our felicity.

22. Being developed, it evolves itself in the shape of outward organs, and takes upon it the form of the gross body; as the liquid water, consolidates by degrees to the bulky forms of islands, and huge mountainous bodies.

23. This intelligence being engrossed by ignorance, assumes gross form of mind to itself; and with form it binds itself fastly with the corporeal body, as a man views his aerial dreams in their material substance. (So the intelligent mind is transformed to a material substance).

24. In these states of the conversion of intelligence into sensation, perception and other faculties, the Intellect remains the same and unchangeable though it is expressed by different words of human invention (and which are but synonyms of the same).

25. The soul remains the same both in its conception of mental thoughts and ideas, as well as in its perception of outward objects; and it is not changed in either case like the mind, in its vision of the dreams within it, and its sight of object, without itself.

26. The Intellect or understanding, resembling a vacuous substance, is as unchangeable in its nature as that of vacuity and eternity; and the objects which present their ideas in the soul, are as dreams which appear in the mind, and are nothing in reality.

27. The gross nature of external objects, bear no relation with the pure internal intellect; nor can their impurity touch or pollute the purity of the soul; therefore the intellect is not subject to the mutability of external nature.

28. The understanding never acquires the mutable state, of the objects it dwells upon (as the mind does); it remains always in its immutable nature, and is never otherwise in any state or condition.

29. The yogi having attained to his extreme purity of his understanding, in the seventh or the highest degree of his perfection; 245becomes identified with intelligence, and of the meaning of its presence or absence.

30. The minds of the passing or ordinary people, are impressed with idea of their materiality by reason of their understanding themselves as material bodies.

31. They falsely take their fleeting minds, which are as pure as the clear firmament for a material object; in the same manner as the players in a drama, take upon themselves the false guise of Pisáchas demons. (Misrepresenting the fair as foul).

32. All error is corrected by the habit of an unerring wisdom, as the madness of a man is cured by his thinking himself as no mad man. (That is, the constant habit of your thinking yourself as so and so, is what will make you really appear as such).

33. The knowledge of one’s erroneousness makes him get out of his error, as the error of dreaming is lost, upon one’s coming to the knowledge, that all he beheld was but a mere dream.

34. It is the extenuation of our desires, that lessens our attachment to the world (and the vice versa); the desire is a great demon, which must be destroyed by the wise man.

35. As the madness of men, is increased by their habitual ravings; so it is by their constant practice of sobriety, that the giddy insanity of man comes to be abated.

36. As the passing human body, is taken in its corporeal sense in thought; so it is taken in a spiritual sense also by the learned, by virtue of its understanding or intellectual powers or faculties.

37. The passing or subtile body, having taken the form of the living soul; is capable of being converted into the state of Brahma; by the intense culture of its understanding. (But it is argued and objected that).

38. If anything is produced according to its substance, and if any body thinks himself according his own understanding; how is it then possible for a material being, to take itself in a spiritual sense.

24639. Logomachy rather increases the doubts, but following one’s advice, the error is removed off; as devil is removed off by chaunting the mantras only, rather than knowing the meaning of them.

40. The world being thought as identic with its thought (or conception in the mind), it is believed to be an immaterial and bodiless substance; until at last its substantivity is lost in the vacuity of the Intellect. (So says the sruti:—The world is the bodiless and unsullied spirit).

41. The mind being quite at rest from all its internal and external thoughts, the real spiritual nature of the soul then appears to light; and manifest itself in the form of the cool and clear firmament, which must be laid hold upon for one’s rest and refuge.

42. The wise man will perform his sacrifice with knowledge, and plant the stakes of his meditation in it; and at the conclusion of his all-conquering sacrifice (Vishajit) offer his relinquishment of the world (sarva tyága) as his oblation to it. (Because whoso wishes to overcome the world, needs first to make an offering of it in his holy sacrifice).

43. The wise man is always the same and equally firm in himself, whether he stands under a shower of rain or falling rain or fire stones from above, or walks in a diluvian storm; or when he is travelling all over the earth or mounting or flying in the air.

44. No one can attain the station of the apathetic sage, whose mind is tranquil by its want of desire, and which has obtained its enclosure within itself; unless he is practiced to sit in his steadfast meditation.

45. The mind can never derive that perfect peace and tranquility, either from the study of the sástras, or attending on holy lectures and sermons, or by the practice of austerities and self-controul; as it does by its distaste of all external objects and enjoyments.

46. The mind like a bundle of hay is burnt away by the fire of inappetency of all worldly objects; this fire is kindled 247by the breath of abandonment of all things, and fanned by the persuasion, that all prosperity is followed by adversity.

47. The perception of sensible objects, casts a mist of ignorance in and all about the mind; it is one’s knowledge alone, which shines as a brilliant gem within himself.

48. It is the Intellect alone which shines amidst this gloom, like a luminary in the sky; and looks over all mankind, Nágas and Asuras, and over mountains and in their caves.

49. It is by the infusion of this Intellect, that all things are moving in the dull womb of the universe; they are whirling in the whirlpool of the Intellect, and are deriving their freshness from the enlivening power of that source.

50. All living beings whirling in the great whirlpool of the Intellect (chit Vivarte), are as weak little fishes encircled by the net of ignorance; they are swimming and skimming in the water of the vast vacuum, and are quite forgetful of their spiritual origin.

51. It is the Divine Intellect, that shows itself in various forms within the sphere of itself; as the air presents the variegated forms of thickening clouds, in the wide arena of the sky.

52. All living beings are of the same nature, with their spiritual source, when they are devoid of their desires; it is the difference of desire that makes their different states, and causes them to fly about like the dry leaves of trees, and rustling in the air as hollow reeds.

53. Therefore you must not remain as the ignorant, but rise above them by raising your mind to wisdom; and this is to be done, by calling the manly powers to your aid; and then by overcoming your dullness to suppress the whole band of your rising desires, and next by breaking the strong fetters and prison-house of this world, to devote your attention to your improvement in spiritual knowledge. (These steps are described very diffusely in the gloss for the practice of the devotee).

Vasishtha added:—These bodies of living beings, that are seen to fill the ten sides of this world; and consisting of the different tribes of men, Nágas, Suras, Gandharvas, mountaineers and others.

2. Of these some are sleeping wakers (waking sleepers), and others are waking in their imaginations only, and hence called imaginative wakers; some are only wakeful, while there be others who have been waking all along.

3. Many are found to be strictly wakeful, and many also as waking sleepers both by day and night; there be some animals that are slightly wakeful, and these constitute the seven classes of living beings (inhabiting this world).

4. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, the difference of the seven species of living beings for my satisfaction; which appear to me to be as different as the waters of the seven seas.

5. Vasishtha replied:—There have been some men in some former age and parts of the world, who are known to have been long sleepers with their living bodies. (Such were the seven sleepers of kehef mentioned in Sádi’s Gulistan).

6. The dream that they see, is the dream of the existence of the world; and those who dream this dream are living men, and denominated as waking sleepers or day dreamers.

7. Sometimes a sleeping man, sees a dream rising of itself before him, by reason of some prior action or desire of the same kind arising in the mind; such is the uncalled for appearance of anything or property unto us; and it is therefore that we are denominated as dreaming men. (The story of Lílá related before, will serve as an elucidation of this kind).

2498. They who come to wake after their prolonged sleep and dream, are called as awakened from their sleep and dream, and to have got rid of them (such are the enlightened men that have come out of their ignorance).

9. I say we are also sleepers and dreamers, among those sleeping men; because we do not perceive the omniscient One, who by his omnipresence is present every where, as the All in all.

10. Ráma rejoined;—Tell me now where are those awakened and enlightened men now situated, when those kalpa ages wherein they lived and were born, are now past and gone along with their false imagination.

11. Vasishtha replied:—Those who have got rid of their erroneous dreams in this world, and are awakened from their sleep; resort to some other bodies which they meet with, agreeable to the fancies which they form in their imaginations. (Every one having a peculiar fancy of himself for anything, assumes that form in his next birth).

12. Thus they meet with other forms in other ages of the world, according to their own peculiar fancies; because there is no end of the concatenation and fumes of fancy, in the empty air of the mind.

13. Now know them that are said to be awakened from their sleep, to be those who have got out of this imaginary world; as the inborn insects, come out of an old and rotten fig tree.

14. Hear now of those that are said to be waking in their fancies and desires, and they are those who are born in some former age, and in some part of the world; and were entirely restless and sleepless in their minds owing to some fanciful desire springing in them, and to which they were wholly devoted (so are they that live upon hope).

15. And they also who are lost in their meditation, and are subjected in the realm of their greedy minds; who are strongly bound to their desires, by losing or the sacrifice of all their former virtues.

25016. So also are they whose desires have been partly awake from before, and have gradually engrossed all the other better endeavours of their possessors, are likewise said to be wakeful to their desires.

17. They who after cessation of their former desires, resort to some fresh wishes again; are not only greedy people themselves, but think ourselves also to be of the same sort.

18. I have told you already regarding the vigils of their desires, and now know them to be dormant over their desires, who bear their lives as they are life beings, and dead to their wishes like ourselves. But hear further of them that are ever awake.

19. The first patriarchs that were produced from the self-evolving Brahma, are said to have been ever wakeful, as they had been immerged in profound sleep before their production.

20. But being subjected to repeated births, these ever wakeful beings, became subject to alternate sleep and waking, owing to their subjection to reiterated work and repose.

21. These again became degraded to the state of trees, on account of their unworthy deeds; and these are said to be duly waking, because of their want of sensibility even in waking state. (The nocturnal sleep of the vegetable creation was unknown to the ancients).

22. Those who are enlightened by the light of the sástras, and the company of wise men; look upon the world as a dream in their waking state, and are therefore called as waking dreamers by day.

23. Those enlightened men, who have found their rest in the divine state; and are neither wholly awake nor asleep, are said to have arrived at the fourth stage of their yoga.

24. Thus have I related to you the difference, of the seven kinds of beings, as that of the waters of the seven seas from one another. Now be of that kind which you think to be the best.

25125. After all, O Ráma, give up your error of reckoning the worlds as real entities of themselves; and as you have come to your firm belief in one absolute unity, get rid of the duality of vacuity and solidity, and be one with that primeval body, which is free from monism and dualism.

Ráma said:—Tell me sir, what is the cause of mere waking for nothing, and how does a living being proceed from the formless Brahma, which is tantamount to the growth of a tree in empty air.

2. Vasishtha replied:—O highly intelligent Ráma, there is no work to be found any where which is without its cause, therefore it is altogether impossible for any body to exist here, that is merely awake for nothing.

3. Like this, it is equally impossible also for all other kinds of living beings, to exist without a cause.

4. There is nothing that is produced here, nor anything which is destroyed also; it is only for the instruction and comprehension of pupils, that such words are coined and made use of.

5. Ráma asked:—Who then is it that forms these bodies, together with their minds, understandings and senses; and who is it that deludes all beings into the snares of passions and affections, and into the net of ignorance.

6. Vasishtha replied:—There is no body that forms these bodies at any time, nor is there any one who deludes the living beings in a manner at all.

7. There is alone the self-shining soul, residing in his conscious self; which evolves in various shapes, as the water glides on in the shapes of billows and waves. (Here water is expressed by the monosyllabic word ka—aqua, as it is done else where by udac undan and udra—hydra as also by ap—ab Persian).

8. There is nothing as an external phenomenon, it is the intellect which shows itself as the phenomenal; it rises from the mind (as perception does from the heart), like a large tree growing out of its seed.

2539. It is in this faculty of the understanding, O thou support of Raghu’s race, that this universe is situated, just as the images are carved in a stone.

10. There is but one spiritual soul, which spreads both internally as well as externally, throughout the whole extent of time and space; and know this world as the effluvia of the divine intellect scattered on all sides.

11. Know this as the next world, by suppressing your desire for a future one; rest calmly in your celestial soul even here, nor let your desires range from here to there.

12. All space and time, all the worlds and their motions with all our actions, being included under the province of the intellectual soul; the meanings of all these terms are never insignificant and nil.

13. O Rághava! It is they only who are well acquainted with the meanings of words (the vedas), and those keen observers who have ceased to look upon the visibles, that can comprehend the Supreme soul, and not others (who have no understanding).

14. Those who are of light minds, and are buried in the depth of egoism; it is impossible for them ever to come to the sight of that light (which is seen only by the holy).

15. The wise look upon the fourteen regions of this world, together with multitudes of their inhabitants, as the members of this embodied spirit.

16. There can be no creation or dissolution without its cause; and the work must be conformable with the skill of its maker.

17. If the work be accompanied with its cause, and the work alone be perceptible without its accompanying cause, it must be an unreality, owing to our imperception of its constituting cause.

18. And whereas the product must resemble its producer, as the whiteness of the sea water produces the white waves and froths, so the productions of the most perfect God, must bear resemblance to his nature in their perfection. But the imperfect world and the mind not being so, they cannot be said to have proceeded from the all perfect One.

25419. (Therefore imperfect nature is no creation of the father of perfection). Wherefore all this is the pure spirit of God, and the whole is the great body of Brahma; in the same manner, as one clod of earth, is the cause of many a pot; and one bar of gold, becomes the cause of many a jewel.

20. As the waking state appears as a dream in dreaming (i.e. when one dreams), on account of the oblivion of the waking state; so the waking state seems as dreaming, even in the waking state of the wise. (So the pot appears as the clod in its unformed state, and the clod appears as the pot after it is formed. So the spirit appears as the world to the ignorant, while the world appears as soul to the wise).

21. If it is viewed in the light of the mind or a creation of the mind, it proves to be as false as water in the mirage (because the phantasies of the mind present only false appearances to view). It proves at last to be a waking dream by the right understanding of it.

22. By right knowledge all material objects, together with the bodies of wise men, dissolve like the bodies of clouds, in their proper season.

23. As the clouds disappear in the air, after pouring their waters in the rains; so doth the world disappear from the sight of men, who have come to the light of truth and knowledge of the soul.

24. Like the empty clouds of autumn and the water of the mirage, the phenomenal world loses its appearance, no sooner it is viewed by the light of right reason.

25. As solid gold is melted down to fluidity by hot fire, so the phenomenals all melt away to an aerial nothing, when they are observed by the keen eye of philosophy.

26. All solid substances in the three worlds, become rarefied air when they <are> put to the test of a rational analysis; just as the stalwart spectre of a demon, vanishes from the sight of the awakened child into nothing.

27. Conceptions of endless images, rise and fall of themselves in the mind; so the image of the world being but a concept of the mind, there is no reality in it, nor is there anything which 255has any density or massiveness in it (a mass being but the conception of an aggregate of minute particles and no more).

28. The knowledge and ignorance of the world, consist only in its conception and nescience in the mind; when the knowledge of its existence disappears from the understanding, where is there the idea of its massiveness any more in the mind. (So as in the insensibility of our sound sleep and swooning, we have no consciousness of it).

29. The world loses its bulk and solidity, in our knowledge of the state of our waking dream; when its ponderousness turns to rarity, as the gold melts to liquidity when it is put upon fire.

30. The understanding as it is (i.e. being left uncultivated), becomes dull and dense by degrees; as the liquid gold when left to itself, is solidified in a short time.

31. Thus one who in his waking state considers himself to be dreaming, and sees the world in its rarified state; comes to extenuate himself with all his desires and appetites, as a ponderous cloud is sublimated in autumn.

32. The wise man seeing all the visible beauties of nature which are set before his face, as extremely rare and of the appearance of dreams, takes no notice of nor relish in them.

33. Where is this rest of the soul, and where this turmoil of the spirit for wealth; their abiding in the one and same man, is as the meeting of sleep and wakefulness together, and the union of error and truth in the same person, and at the same time (which is impossible).

34. He who remains asleep to (or insensible of) the erroneous imaginations of his mind, acts freed from his false persuasion of the reality of the world.

35. Who is it, O high minded Ráma, that takes a pleasure in an unreality, or satisfies himself with drinking the false water of the mirage appearing before him.

36. The saintly sage, who rests in his knowledge of truth; looks upon the world <as> an infinite vacuum, beset with luminaries, which shines forth like the light of lamps set behind the windows.

37. The waking man who knows everything as void and 256blank, and as the vagary of his vagrant mind ceases to long for the enjoyment of it. (For nobody craves for anything, which he knows to be nothing).

38. There is nothing desirable in that, which is known to be nothing at all; for who runs after the gold, which he has seen in his dream at night?

39. Every body desists from desiring that, which he knows to be seen in his dream only; and he is released from the bondage, which binds the beholder to the object of this sight. (Lit. the knot of the viewer and view is broken).

40. He is the most accomplished man, who is not addicted to pleasure, and is of a composed mind and with pride; and he is a man of understanding, who is dispassionate and remains quiet without any care or toil. (Perfect composure is the character of the Stoic and Platonic philosophers).

41. Distaste to pleasure, produces the want of desire; just as the flame of fire being gone, there is an end of its light. (The fire gives heat but the flame produces the light).

42. The light of knowledge, shows sky as a cloudless and lighted sphere; but the darkness of error, gives the world an appearance of the hazy fairy land.

43. The wise man neither sees himself, nor the heavens nor anything besides; but his ultimate view is at last fixed upon the glory of God (which shines all about him).

44. The holy seer (being seated in the seventh stage of his yoga), sees neither himself nor the sky nor the imaginary worlds about him; he does not see the phantasms of his fancy, but sits quite insensible of all.

45. The earth and other existences, which are dwelt and gazed upon by the ignorant, are lost in the sight of the sage, who sees the whole as a void, and is insensible of himself. (The earth recedes, and heaven opens to his sight. Pope).

46. Then there comes on a calm composure and grace in the soul, resembling the brightness of the clear firmament; and the yogi sits detached from all, as a nullity in himself.

47. Unmindful of all, the yogi sits silent in his state of self-seclusion and exclusion from all: he is set beyond the ocean 257of the world, and the bounds of all its duties and action. (The yogi gets exempt from all social and religious obligation).

48. That great ignorance (or delusion), which is the cause of the mind’s apprehension of the earth and sky, and the hills and seas and their contents, is utterly dissolved by true knowledge, though these things appear to exist before the ignorant eye.

49. The sapient sage stands unveiled before his light of naked truth, with his tranquil mind freed from all sceptical doubts; and being nourished with the ambrosia of truth, he is as firm and fixed in himself, as the pithy and sturdy oak.

Ráma said:—Tell me, O sage, whence comes our knowledge of the world (as a distinct entity from God); and then tell me, how this difference is removed and refuted.

2. Vasishtha replied:—The ignorant man takes to his mind all that he sees with his eyes, and not at all what he does not see. Thus he sees a tree in its outward branches and leaves, but knows not the root, which lies hid from his sight.

3. The wise man sees a thing by the light of the sástra, and uses it accordingly; but the ignorant fool, takes and grasps anything as he sees it; without considering its hidden quality.

4. Be attentive to the dictates of the sástras, and intent upon acting according to their purport; and by remaining as a silent sage, attend to my sermon, which will be an ornament to your ears.

5. All this visible phenomenon is erroneous, it hath no real existence, and appears as the flash of light in the water and is known by the name of ignoramus.

6. Attend for a moment and for my sake, to the purport of the instruction which I am now going to give you; and knowing this as certain truth, rely upon it (and you will gain your object hereby).

7. Whence are all these and what are they, is a doubt (inquiry) which naturally rises of itself in the mind; and you will come to know by your own cogitation, that all this is nothing and is not in existence.

8. Whatever appears before you in the form of this world, and all its fixed and moveable objects; as also all things of 259every shape and kind, is altogether evanescent and vanishes in time into nothing.

9. The continual wasting and partition of the particles of things, bespeak their unavoidable extinction at last, as the water exuding by drops from a pot, make it entirely empty in a short time.

10. Thus all things being perishable, and all of them being, but parts of Brahma, it is agreed (by Logicians), that Brahma is neither endless nor imperishable, nor even existent at this time (since by loss of parts by infinitesimal, the whole is lost in toto at last).

11. This conceit (of a theist) likening the intoxication of wine, cannot over power our theistical belief; because our knowledge of bodies, is as that of things in a dream, and not at all of their real substantiality.

12. The phenomenals are of course all perishable, but not the other (the spirit), which is neither matter nor destructible, and this is conformable with the doctrines of the sástras, which mean no other.

13. Whether what is destroyed come to revive again or not, is utterly unknowable to us; all that we can say by our inferences, is that the renovations are very like the former ones.

14. That matter existed in the form of vacuum upon its dissolution, is not possible to believe (from the impossibility of plastic nature to be converted to a formless void). Again if there was the vacuum as before, then there could not be a total dissolution (if this was left undestroyed).

15. If the theory of the identity of creation and dissolution be maintained (owing to the existence of the world in the spirit of God); then the absence of causality and effect, supports our tenet of their being the one and the same thing.

16. Vacuity being conceivable by us, we say everything to be annihilated, that is transformed to or hid in the womb of vacuum; if then there is anything else which is meant by dissolution, let us know what may it be otherwise.

17. Whoever believes that, the things which are destroyed, comes to restore again (as the Pratyabhijna vadis do); is 260either wrong to call them annihilated, or must own, that others are produced to supply their place.

18. Where is there any causality or consequence in a tree, which is but a transformation of the seed; notwithstanding the difference of its parts, as the trunk and branches, and leaves and fruits.

19. The seed is not inactive as a pot or picture, but exhibits its actions in the production of its flower and fruits in their proper seasons. (So doth the divine spirit show its evolution and involution, as the proper times of creation and dissolution of the world).

20. That there is no difference in the substance of things (of different form and natures), is a truth maintained by every system of philosophy; and this truth is upheld in spirituality also; therefore there is no dispute about it.

21. And this substance being considered to be of an eternally inert form, and of a plastic nature; it is understood to be of the essence of vacuum, both by right inference and evidence of sástras.

22. Why the essential principle is unknown to us, and why we have still some notion of it, and how we realize that idea, is what I am now going to relate to you step by step.

23. All these visible spheres, being annihilated at the final dissolution of the world; and the great gods also being extinct, together with our minds and understandings, and all the activities of nature.

24. The sky also being undefined and time dwindling into a divisible duration; the winds also disappearing and fire blinding into the chaotic confusion.

25. Darkness also disappearing and water vanishing into nothing; and all things which are expressed by words quite growing nil and null in the end.

26. There remains the pure entity of a conscious soul, which is altogether unbounded by time and space, and is something without its beginning or end; is decrease or waste, and entirely pure and perfect in its nature.

27. This one is unspeakable and undiscernible, imperceptible 261and inconceivable and without any appellation or attribute whatever; This is an utter void itself and yet the principle and receptacle of all beings and the source of all entity and non-entity.

28. It is not the air nor the wind, nor is it the understanding nor any of its faculties nor a void or nullity also; it is nothing and yet the source of everything, and what can it be but the transcendent vacuum (vyom-beom Hebrew, and the bom-bom of sivaites when Siva is called vyom-Kesa).

29. It is only a notion in the conception of wise and beside which no one can conceive or know anything of it, whatever definition or description of it is given by others, is only a repetition of the words of the vedas.

30. It is neither the time or space, nor the mind nor soul nor any being or nothing that it may said to be; it is not in the midst or end of any space or side, nor is it that we know or know altogether. (The Lord is unspeakable yet faintly seen in these his meanest works. Milton).

31. This <is>something too translucent for common apprehension, and is conceivable only by the greatest understandings; and such as have retired from the world and attained to the highest stage of their yoga.

32. I have left out the popular doctrines, which are avoided by the Srutis; and the expressions of the latter are displayed herein, like the playful waves in the limpid ocean.

33. It is said there, that all beings are situated in their common receptacle of the great Brahma; as the unprojected figures are exhibited in relief, upon a massive stony pillar.

34. Thus all beings are situated and yet unsituated in Brahma, who is the soul of and not the same with all; and who is in and without all existence (These contraries are according to the texts of different Srutis, giving the discordant ideas of God in the spiritualistic and materialistic points of view).

35. Whatever be the nature of the universal soul, it is devoid of all attributes; and in whatever manner it is viewed, it comes at last to mean the self-same unity. (The different paths leading to the one and same goal).

26236. It is all and the soul of all, and being devoid of attributes, it is full of all attributes; and in this manner it is viewed by all.

37. So long, O intelligent Ráma, as you do not feel the entire suspension of all your objects (in the torpid state of your samádhi); you cannot be said to have reached to the fullness of your knowledge, as it is indicated by your doubts till then.

38. The enlightened man who has come to (know) the unapparent great glory of God, has the clear sightedness of his mind, and remains quiet with viewing the inbeing of his being.

39. His fallacies of I, thou and he, and his error of the world and the three times (viz. the present, past, and future); are lost in his sight of that great glory, as many a silver coin is merged in a lump of gold.

40. But as a gold coin, produces (yields) various kinds of coins (different from itself); it is not in that manner that these worlds and their contents, are produced as things of a different kind from the nature of God.

41. The detached soul looks always upon the different bodies, as contained within itself; and remains in relation to this dualism of the world, as the gold is related to the various kinds of jewels, which are produced from it.

42. It is inexpressible by the words, implying space and time or any other thing; though it is the source and seat of them all; it comprehends everything, though it is nothing of itself.

43. All things are situated in Brahma, as the waves are contained in the sea; and they are exhibited by him, like pictures drawn by the painter; he is the substratum and substance of all, as the clay of the pots which are made of it.

44. All things are contained in it, as they are and are not there at the sametime, and as neither distinct nor indistinct from the same; they are ever of the same nature, and equally pure and quiet as their origin.

45. The three worlds are contained in it, as the uncarved images are concealed in a stone or wood; and as they are seen with gladness even there, by the future sculptor or carver.

26346. The images come to be seen, when they are carved and appear manifest on the stone pillar; otherwise the worlds remain in that soul, as the unperturbed waves lie calmly in the bosom of the sea.

47. The sight of the worlds appears to the Divine intellect, as divided and distinct when they are yet undivided and indistinct before their creation; they appear to be shining and moving there; when they are dark and motionless on the outside.

48. It is the combination of atoms, that composes these worlds; and makes them shine so bright, when no particle has any light in it. (Dull matter is dark, and it is the light of God that makes it shine).

49. The sky, air, time and all other objects, which are said to be produced from the formless God; are likewise formless of themselves; the Lord God is the soul of all, devoid of all qualities and change, undecaying and everlasting, and termed the most transcendent truth.

Ráma said:—How there is sensibility in sensible beings, and there is durability in time; how vacuum is a perfect void, and how inertness abides in dull material substances:—

2. How does fluctuation reside in air, and what is the state of things in futuro, and those that absent at present; how doth motion reside in moving things, and how doth plasmic bodies receive their forms.

3. Whence is the difference of different things, and the infinity of infinite natures; how there is visibility in the visibles, (i.e. how the visibles appear to view), and how does the creation of created things come to take place:—

4. Tell me, O most eloquent Brahman, all these things one by one, and explain them from the first to last, in such manner, that they may be intelligible to the lowest understanding.

5. Vasishtha replied:—That endless great vacuum, is known as the great and solid intellect itself; but this is not to be known any more, than as a tranquil and self-existent unity.

6. The Gods Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva and others, are reduced to their origin at the last dissolution of the world; and there remains only that pure source whence they have sprung.

7. There is however no cause to be assigned in this prime cause of all, who is also the seed of matter and form, as well as of delusion, ignorance and error. (These being but counterparts of spirit and knowledge, are all mingled in Him).

8. The original cause is quite transparent and tranquil, and having neither its beginning nor end, and the subtile ether itself is dense and solid, in comparison with the rarity of the other.

2659. It is not proper to call it a nullity, when it is possessed of an intellectual body; nor can it with propriety styled as an existent being, when it is altogether calm and quiet (and nothing imaginable).

10. The form of that being is as inconceivable, as the idea of that little space of time which lies in midst of our thought of the length of a thousand miles, which the mind’s eye sees in a moment. (Its flash is quicker than that of a lightning and the flight of imagination).

11. The yogi who is insensible of the false and delusive desires and sights of objects, that intrude upon internal mind and external vision, sees the transient flash of that light in his meditation, as he wakes amidst the gloom of midnight.

12. The man that sits with the quiet calmness of his mind, and without any of joy or grief; comes to feel the pulsation of that spirit in himself, as he perceives the fluctuation of his mind within him.

13. That which is the spring of creation, as the sprout is the source of all vegetable productions; the very same is the form of the Lord (That he is the vegetative seed or germ of the arbour of the world. Sansára Briksa Brijánkura).

14. He is the cause of the world, which is seen to exist in Him; and which is a manifestation of himself, in all its varieties of fearful forms and shapes (All which is the act of his illusion).

15. These therefore having no actual or real cause, are no real productions nor actual existences; because there is no formal world (in its natural form), nor a duality co-existent with the spiritual unity.

16. That which has no cause, can have no possible existence; the eternal ideas of God cannot be otherwise than mere ideal shapes.

17. The vacuum which has no beginning nor end, is yet no cause of the world; because Brahma is formless, but the vacuous sky, which presents a visible appearance, cannot be the form of the formless and invisible Brahma.

18. Therefore he is that, in which the form of the world 266appears to exist; hence the lord himself appears as that which is situated in the vacuity of his intellect.

19. The world being of the nature of the intellectual Brahma, is of the same intellectual kind with him; though our error shows it otherwise (i.e. in a material and visible form. All is one with the unborn and ever tranquil One, in whom all dualities blend in unity).

20. This whole world springs from that whole intellect, and subsists in its entirety in that entire One; the completeness of that is displayed in the totality of this, and the completeness of creation, depends upon the perfection of its cause. (Nothing imperfect proceeds from the perfect one).

21. Knowing that One as ever even and quiet, having neither its rise or fall; nor any form of likeness, but ever remaining in its translucent unity as the ample sky, and is the everlasting all; and combining the reality and unreality together in its unity, makes the nirvána of sages.

Vasishtha continued:—The world is a clear vacuum, subsisting in the entity of the vacuous Brahma; it is as the visible sky in the empty sky, and means the manifestation of Brahma.

2. The words I and thou are expressive of the same Brahma, seated in his undivided individuality; so are all things seated as calmly and quietly in him, as if they are not seated there, though they are shining in and by the same light.

3. The earth with its hills and protuberant bodies upon it, resembles the tumour on the body of Brahma; and the whole world, remains as dumb as a block in the person of Brahma.

4. He views the visibles, as he is no viewer of them; and he is the maker of all, without making anything; because they naturally subsist with their several natures in the Supreme spirit.

5. This knowledge of the subsistence of all nature in the essence of God, precludes our knowledge of the positive existence of everything besides; and our ideas of all entity and vacuity and of action and passion, vanish into nothing. (Since the One is all in all).

6. The one solid essence of the everlasting One, is diffused through all every where, as the solidity of a stone stretches throughout its parts; and all varieties blending into unity, are ever alike to him.

7. Life and death, truth and untruth, and all good and evil, are equally indifferent in that vacuous spirit, as the endless billows continually rising and falling in the waters of the deep.

2688. The selfsame Brahma becomes divided, into the viewer and the view (i.e. into the subjective and the objective); the one being the intellect or the supreme, and the other the living soul (the former being the viewer of the latter). This division is known in the dreaming and waking states of the living or animal soul; when the same is both the subject as well the object in either state. (i.e. The sleeping soul dreams the living state as its object, and the living soul believes the other as object of its dream).

9. In this manner the form of the world, being exhibited as a vision in a dream, in the sphere of the divine intellect; is manifest therein as the counterpart or representation of Brahma himself, from the beginning. (This is the doctrine of the eternal ideas, being co-existent with the essence of the eternal One).

10. Therefore know this world and all things in it, to be exactly of that spiritual form, in which they are exhibited in the divine spirit; nor is there any variation in their spirituality (to materiality) owing to their appearance in various forms, as there is no change in the substance of the moon, owing to her several phases.

11. All these worlds reside and rove amidst the quiet spirit of God, in the same manner, as the waters remain and roll in waves in the midst of the calm bosom of the ocean.

12. Whatever is manifest, is manifested as the work, and that which is not apparent is the hidden cause of them; and there is no difference in them, in as much as they are both situated in that spirit, as their common centre; just as a traveller ever going forward, yet never moving from the centre of the earth. (The cause and effect both concentrate in the Lord, and there is no particle that goes out of that centre).

13. Hence the prime cause of creation is as nil, as the horn of a hare (which is a nullity in nature); search for it as much as you can, and you will find nothing (save an ectype of the eternal One).

14. Whatever appears anywhere without its <cause>, must be a 269fallacy of vision and mind; and who can account for the truth of an error which is untrue itself. (Falsehood is no truth).

15. How and what effect can come to existence without its cause, and what is it but an error of the brain, for a childless man to say he sees his son.

16. Whatever comes to appearance without its cause, is all owing to the nature of our imagination of the same; which shows the objects of our desire in all their various forms to our view, as our fancy paints the fairy lands in our minds.

17. As a traveller passing from one country to another, finds his body (himself) to stand at the midspot (from his knowledge of the rotundity of the earth); so nothing departs from its nature, but turns about that centre like.

18. The understanding also shows many false and biggest objects, in its airy and minute receptacle; as for instance the many objects of desire, and the notion of mountains, which it presents to us in our waking and dreaming states.

19. Ráma rejoined:—We know well that the future banian tree, resides within the minute receptacle of its seed; why then don’t you say, that the creation was hidden in the same manner in the unevolved spirit of God?

20. Vasishtha replied:—The seed in its material form, contains the formless big tree in its undeveloped bosom; which developes afterwards to a gigantic size, by aid of the auxiliary causalities (of heat, rain &c.). (But God is formless spirit and cannot contain the material world in it, nor has it the need of other helping causes to produce the world).

21. The whole creation being dissolved in the end, tell me what remains there of it in the form of its seed; and what ancillary causes are there to be found, which cause the production of the world. (Nothing exists in nothing).

22. The pure and transparent spirit of God, has nothing of any possible shape or figure in it; and if it is impossible for even an atom to find a place therein, what possibility is there for a formal seed to exist or subsist in it.

23. So the reality of a causal (productive) seed, being altogether untrue; there is no possibility of the existence of 270a real (substantial) world, nor can you say how, whence, by whom and when it came into being.

24. It is improper to say that the world consisted in a minute particle in the divine spirit, and quite absurd to maintain that it remained in an eternal atom (according to the atomic theory); for how is it possible that a body as big as a mountain could be contained in a minim as small as a mustard seed? It is therefore a false theory of the ignorant.

25. Had there been a real seed from eternity, it is possible for the world to be produced from it, by causes inherent in the same; but how could a real and formal seed, be contained in the formless spirit of God; and by what process could the material proceed from the immaterial?

26. It is therefore that prime and transcendent principle (of the divine spirit), which exhibits itself in the form of the world; and there is nothing which is ever produced from, nor reduced into it.

27. The world is situated in its intellectual form, in the vacuity of the Intellect; it is the human heart which portrays it, in its material shape. The pure soul views it in its pure spiritual light, but the perverted heart perceives it in a gross and concrete state.

28. It appears in the mind as empty air, and fluctuates there with the oscillation of the wind; there is nothing of its substantiality in the mind, nor even an idea of its creation (or being a created thing), as the word sarga is meant to express.

29. As there is vacuity in the sky, and fluidity in the water of its own nature; so is there spirituality alone in the soul, which views the world in a spiritual light only.

30. The world is a reflexion of Brahma, and as such, it is Brahma himself, and not a solid and extended thing; it is without its beginning or end and quiet in its nature, and never rises nor sets of itself. (i.e. It is inherent in the divinity, and is neither involved in nor evolved from it).

31. As a wise man going from one country to another, finds his body to be ever situated in the midst of this globe; so the 271universe with all its remotest worlds, is situated in the vacuity of the divine spirit.

32. As fluctuation is innate in the air, and fluidity is inherent in water, and vacuity is essential to vacuum; so is this world intrinsic in the divine soul, without anything concomitant with it.

33. The vacuous phantom of the world, is in the vacuum of divine consciousness or intellect; and being thus situated in the Supreme soul, it has no rising nor setting as that of the sun. Therefore knowing all these to be included in that vacuum, and there is nothing visible beside the same, cease from viewing the phantoms of imagination, and be as the very vacuity yourself.

Vasishtha continued:—It is the thought and its absence, that produce the gross and subtile ideas of the world; which in reality was never created in the beginning for want of a creator of it (i.e. The identity of the world with Brahma himself, precludes the supposition of its creation).

2. The essence of the intellect being of an incorporeal nature, cannot be the cause of a corporeal thing. The soul cannot produce an embodied being, as the seed brings forth the plants on earth.

3. It is the nature of man to think of things, by his own nature, and hence the intelligent of mankind view the world in an intellectual light, while the ignorant take in a gross material sense. The intellect being capable of conceiving everything in itself (whether the concrete or discrete).

4. The etherial soul relishes things according to its taste, and the intellect entertains the idea of whatever it thinks upon; the ignorant soul begets the idea of creation, as a giddy man sees many shapes in his intoxication.

5. Whenever the shape of a thing, which is neither produced nor existent, presents itself to our sight; it is to be known as a picture of the ideal figure, which lies quietly in the divine mind.

6. The vacuous Intellect dwelling in the vacuity of the intellect, as fluidity resides in water; shows itself in the form of the world, as the fluid water displays itself in the form of waves upon its surface. So the world is the self-same Brahma, as the wave is the very water. (But the world is intellectual display and not material as the wave).

2737. The worlds shining in the empty air, are as the clear visions of things in a dream, or like the false appearances appearing to a dim-sighted man in the open sky.

8. The mirror of the intellect perceives the pageant of the world, in the same manner, as the mind sees the sights of things in dream. Hence what is termed the world, is but void and vacuity. (A something of nothing).

9. The dormant Intellect (or the sleeping soul of God), is said to be awakened in its first acts of creation; and then follows the inaction of the intellect, which is the sleep and night of the soul. (And so it is with all beings, the time of their action being their waking, and that of rest their sleep).

10. As a river continues to run in the same course, in which its current first began to flow; so the whole creation moves in the same unvaried course as at first, like the continuous current and rippling waves of rivers.

11. As the waves of river are concomitant with the course of its waters, so the source of creation lying in the vacuous seed of the airy Intellect, gives rise to its incessant course, along with its ceaseless train of thoughts.

12. The destruction of a man in his death, is no more than the felicity of his repose in sleep; so the resurrection of his soul (in a renovated body) in this world, is likewise a renewal of his felicity. (Hence there is neither pain nor fear, either in living or dying but both is bliss).

13. If there is any fear for or pain in sin, it is equally so both in this life as well as in the next; therefore the life and death of the righteous are equally as blissful (as they are painful to the unrighteous).

14. Those who look on and hail their life and death, with equal indifference; are men that have an unbroken tranquility of their minds, and are known as the cold-hearted (or meek stoical and platonic).

15. As the conscience becomes clear and bright, after the dross of its consciousness (of the subjective and objective), is 274cleansed and wiped from it; so shines the pure soul which they term the liberated and free (mukta).

16. It is upon the utter absence of our consciousness, that there ensues a total disappearance of our knowledge of the phenomenals also; and then our intellect rises without a vestige of the intelligibles in it, as also without its intelligence of the existence of the world. (This state of the mind constitutes likewise its liberation or mukti).

17. He that knows God, becomes unified with the divine nature, which is neither thinkable nor of the nature of the thinking principle or intellect, or any which is thought of by the intellect; and being so absorbed in meditation, remains quite indifferent to all worldly pursuits.

18. The world is a reflexion of the mirror of the intellect, and as it is exhibited in the transparent vacuity of the divine spirit, it is in vain to talk of its bondage or liberty.

19. It is the oscillation of the airy intellect, and an act of its imagination, which produces this imaginary world; it is entirely of the nature of the airy spirit whence it has its rise, and never of the form of the earth or anything else as it appears to be.

20. There is no space or time, nor any action or substance here, except an only entity, which is neither a nothing nor any thing that we know of.

21. It is only a spiritual substance, appearing as a thick mist to our sight; it is neither a void nor a substantiality either: but something purer and more pellucid, than the transparent vacuum about us.

22. It is formless with its apparent form, and an unreality with its seeming reality; it is entirely a pure intellectual entity, and appearing as manifest to sight, as an aerial castle in a dream.

23. It is termed the nirvána-extinction of a man, when his view of this outstretched gross and impure world, becomes extinct in its pure spiritual form in the vacuity of his mind. The vast and extensive world presenting all its endless varieties to 275view, has no diversity in it in reality; but forms an infinite unity, like the vacuous space of the sky, and the fluidity of waters of the one universal ocean on the globe.

Vasishtha added:—It being proved before, that the Intellect is always and every where, and in every manner the all in all; it becomes evident, that it remains like the vacuous and translucent air in everything in the whole universe.

2. Wherever there is the Intellect, there is also the creation (inseparable from it); the Intellect residing alike both in the void as well as in the plenum, all things are full of the Intellect, and there is nothing whatsoever in existence beside this universal Intellect.

3. As all created things (whether the moving or unmoving), appear in their visionary forms in our dream; so it is the vacuous Intellect alone, which appears in the various forms of existence in our waking dreams also.

4. Attend now, Ráma, to my narration of the stone, which be as pleasant to taste, as a remedial of ignorance. In this I will relate what I have seen and actually done myself.

5. Being anxious to know the knowable One, I was fully resolved in my mind, to leave this world and all its erroneous usages.

6. I remained a long while in a state of calm and quiet meditation, after having forsaken all the eagerness and restlessness of my body and mind, for the sake of solitary peace and rest.

7. I then pondered in my mind, of betaking myself to some seat or shrine of the Gods; and there sitting in quiet, continue to survey the changing and transitory states of worldly things.

8. I find all things, said I, to be quite insipid to my taste, though they seem to be pleasant for a while; I never see any 277one in any place, who is ever happy or content with his own state.

9. All things breed but care and sorrow, with the acutest pangs of remorse and regret; and all these phenomenals produce but evil, from their appearance of good to the beholder of them. (Thus the goodly bright aspects of the sun and moon, are attended with sunstroke and lunacy to their observer).

10. What is all this that comes to our view, who is their viewer and what am I that look upon these visibles (i.e. what is this objective sight, and what is this subjective self). All this is the quiet and unborn spirit, which flashes forth in the vacuous sky with the light of its own intellect.

11. With thoughts as these, I sought to retire from here to a proper place, where I might confine myself, in myself and which might be inaccessible to the gods and demi-gods, and to the siddhas and other beings.

12. Where I might remain unseen by any being, and sit quiet in my unalterable meditation; by placing my sole reliance in one even and transparent soul, and getting rid of all my cares and pains.

13. Ah! where could I find such a spot, which may be entirely void of all creatures; and where I may not be distracted in my mind by interruptions of the objects of my five external organs of sense.

14. I cannot choose the mountains for my seat, where the whistling breeze of the forests, the dashing noise of waterfalls, and the concourse of wild animals, serve to disquiet the mind, without the capability of their being quieted by human power.

15. The hills are crowded with hosts of elephants, and the dales are filled with hordes of savage peoples, the countries are full of heinous men, more baneful than the poison of venomous serpents.

16. The seas are full of men (on board the vessels), and are filled with horrible beasts in their depth; and the cities are disturbed with the din of business, and the broil of the citizens.

17. The foot of the mountains and the shores and coasts of seas and rivers, are as thickly peopled as the realms of the rulers 278of men; and even the summits of mountains and the caverns of infernal regions, are not devoid of animal beings.

18. The mountains are singing in the whistling of the breezes, and the trees are dancing with the motion of their leafy palms; and the blooming flowers are smiling gently, in the caves of mountains and forest grounds and low lands.

19. I cannot resort to the banks of rivers, where the mute finny tribe dwell like the silent munis in their grottos, and gently shake the water lilies by their giddy flirtation; because this place is disturbed also by the loud noise of the sounding whirlpools, and the hoarse uproar or roaring whirlwind.

20. I can find no rest in the barren deserts, where the howling winds are raising clouds of all engulfing dust, nor can I resort to the mountain cataracts, where the air resounds with the stunning noise of incessant waterfalls.

21. Then I thought of setting myself in some sequestered corner, of the remote region of the sky; where I might remain absorbed in my holy meditation without any disturbance.

22. In this corner, I thought of making a cell in my imagination, and keeping myself quite pent up in its close cavity, by an entire relinquishment of all my worldly desires.

23. With these reflexions, I mounted high in the blue vault of the sky; and found the ample space in its womb to know no bounds (and was identic with Infinity itself).

24. Here I saw the siddhas (perfected spirits) roving in one place, and the roaring clouds rolling in another; in one side I beheld the vidyádhara or accomplished spirits, and the excelled yakskas on another. (Heaven is the abode of perfected souls of all people at large).

25. In one spot I saw an aerial city, and the region of the jarring winds in another; I beheld the raining clouds on one side, and raging yoginis or furies in another.

26. There was the city of the Daityas or demons, hanging in the air on one side; and the place of the Gandarvas appearing in another. The planetary sphere was rolling about in one way, and the starry frame revolving at a distance.

27. Some where the sky was brushed over by flights of 279birds, and great gales were raging in another part; somewhere there appeared portents in the sky, and elsewhere there were canopies of clouds formed in the heavens.

28. One part of heaven was studded with cities, peopled by strange kinds of beings; the car of the sun was gliding on one side, and the wheel of the lunar disk was sliding in another.

29. One region of the sky was burning under the torrid sun, and another part was cooled by the cooling moon-beams; one part was intolerable to little animals and another was inaccessible owing to its intense heat.

30. One place was full of dancing demons, and another with flocks of flying garuda eagles; one region was deluged by diluvian rains, and another was infested by tempestuous winds.

31. Leaving these plenary parts behind, I passed onward far and further; when I reached to a region entirely desolate, and devoid of everything (i.e. the increate vacuity).

32. Here the air was mild, and no being was to be seen even in a dream; there was no omen of good, nor anything portentous of evils, nor any sight or sign of world.

33. I figured to myself in this place, a solitary cell with some space in it; and it was without any passage for egress, and was as goodly as the unblown bed of a lotus.

34. It was not perforated by worms, but was as handsome as the bright disk of the full-moon; and as lovely as the comely features of the lily and lotus, jasmine and mandara flowers.

35. This abode of my imagination, was inaccessible to all other beings but to myself; and I sat there alone with only my thoughts and creations of my imagination by myself.

36. I remained quite silent and calm in my mind, in my posture of Padmásana (or yoga meditation); and then rose from my seat at the expiration of a hundred years, after my acquirement of spiritual knowledge.

37. I sat in unwavering meditation, and was absorbed in a fit of hypnotism; I remained as quiet as the calm stillness of the air, and as immovable as a statue carved in relief upon the face of the sky.

38. At last I found out in my mind, what it had been long 280searching after in earnest; and at last the breath of my expectation returned into my nostrils. (Parting breath of longing returns with the longed for object).

39. The seed of knowledge which I had sown in the field of my mind, came to sprout forth of itself from the midst of it, after the lapse of a whole century.

40. My life or living soul, is now awakened to its intuitive knowledge (of truth); as a tree left withered by the dewy season, becomes revivified by the moisture of the renovating spring.

41. The hundred years which I passed in my meditation here, glided away as quickly as a single moment before me; because a long period of time appears a very short space, to one who is intensively intent upon a single object. (Whereas the succession of thoughts be an unchanging duration of the same moment to him who is fixed in his mind).

42. Now my outward senses had their expansion, from their contracted state (in my meditative mind); just as the withered arbors expand themselves into flowers and foliage, by the enlivening influence of the vernal season.

43. Then the vital airs filled the organs of my body, and restored my consciousness of their sensations; soon after I was seized upon by the demon of my egoism, accompanied by its consort of desire; and these began to move to and fro, just as the strong winds shake the sturdy oaks.

Ráma rejoined:—Tell me, O most sapient sage, how it is possible for the demon of ego to take hold of you, that are extinct in the deity, and dissipate my doubts there.

2. Vasishtha replied:—It is impossible, O Ráma, for any being whether knowing or unknown to live here without the sense of his egoism; as it is not possible for the contained to subsist without its container.

3. But there is a difference of this which you must know, that the demoniac egoism of the quiet minded man, is capable of control by means of his knowledge of and attention to the srutis.

4. It is the infantine ignorance which raises up this idol of egoism, though it is found to exist no where; just as little children make dolls and images of gods and men, that have no existence at all.

5. This ignorance also (which is the cause of egoism), is nothing positive of itself; since it is dispelled by knowledge and reason, as darkness is driven away by the light of a lamp. (Ignorance and darkness are but negative terms).

6. Ignorance is a demon that dances about in the dark, and a fiend that flies afar before the light of reason. (Hence the disappearance of ignorance causes our egoism to disappear also).

7. Granting the existence of ignorance, in absence of the advance of knowledge and reason; yet it is at best but a fiend of delusion, and is as shapeless as the darkest night (When nothing is to be seen).

8. Granting the existence of creation, we have no trace of ignorance any where in it (since creation is the production of 282omniscience, there is no nescience in any part of) the existence of two moons in the sky.

9. Creation having no other cause (but God himself), we know not how could ignorance find a place in it; just so it is impossible for a tree to grow in the air (which God hath made void, barren, and bare). (God hath planted the tree of knowledge in the garden of Eden, but no tree of ignorance did He set any where).

10. When creation began and was begotten in the beginning, in its pure and subtile form in the womb of absolute vacuum (or the mind of God); how is it possible for the material bodies of earth and water to proceed (from the immaterial spirit) without a material cause?

11. The Lord is beyond (the conception of) the mind, and (the perception of) the six senses, and is yet the source of the mind and senses; but how could that formless and incorporeal being, be the cause of material and corporeal things?

12. The germ is the effect (or product), germinating from its causal source—the seed; but how and where can you expect to see the sprout springing without the productive seed?

13. No effect can ever result, without its formal cause or main-spring; say who has ever seen or found a tree to spring from and grow in empty air. (Nihil ex nihilo fit, et nihil in nihilum reverte posse).

14. It is imagination alone that paints these prospects in the mind, just as the fume of fancy shows you the sight of trees in the empty air; so it is the phrensy of the mind, that exhibits these phenomena before your eyes, but which in reality have no essentiality in them.

15. So, the universe as it appeared at its first creation, in the vacuity of the divine intellect; was all a congeries of worlds swimming in empty air (in their hollow ideal shapes).

16. (But the universe is not altogether a void and nihility). It is the same as it shines itself in the spacious intellect of the supreme soul (or spirit); it is the divine nature itself which is termed as creation, and which is an intellectual system having proceeded from the intellect, and the self-same divinity.

28317. The vision of the world which is presented in our dream, and which is of daily occurrence to us, furnishes us with the best instance of this; when we are conscious of the sights of cities, and of the appearance of hills, all before our mental eyes in the dreaming state. (So this world is but a dream).

18. It is the nature of the Intellect as that of a dream, to see the vision of creation, as we view the appearance of the uncreated creation before our eyes, in the same manner as it appeared at first in the vast void (of divine mind).

19. There is but one unintelligible intelligence, a purely unborn and imperishable being, that appears now before us in the shape of this creation, as it existed with its everlasting ideas of infinite worlds, before this creation began.

20. There is no creation here, nor these orbs of earth and others; it is all calm and quiet with but One Brahma seated in his immensity.

21. This Brahma is omnipotent and as He manifests himself in any manner, He instantly becomes as such without forsaking his purely transparent form.

22. As our intellect shows itself, in the form of visionary cities in our dream; so doth the divine intellect exhibit itself, in the forms of all these worlds, at the commencement of their creation.

23. It is in the transparent and transcendent vacuum of the Intellect, that the vacuous intellect is situated; and the creation is the display of its own nature, by an act of its thought in itself. (There is a large note explanatory of this passage).

24. The whole creation consists in the clear vacuity of the intellect, and is of the nature of the spirit situated in the spirit of God. (The world exists in its spiritual form in the ample space of the divine spirit).

25. The whole creation being but the diffusion of the selfsame spiritual essence of God, there is no possibility of the existence of a material world or ignorance or egoism, in the creation and pervasivefulness of the Supreme spirit.

26. Everything have I told you all about the desinence of 284your egoism, and one knowing the unreality of his egoisticism, gets rid of his false belief, as a boy is freed from his fear of a ghost.

27. In this manner, no sooner was I fully convinced of the futility of egoism, than I lost the sense of my personality; and though I retained fully the consciousness of myself, yet I got freed from my selfishness, as a light autumnal cloud by disloading its watery burden.

28. As our knowledge of the inefficacy of a flaming fire in painting, removes the fear of our being burnt by it; so our connection of our fallacies of egoism and creation, serves to efface the impressions of the subjective and objective from our minds.

29. Thus when I was delivered from my egoism, and set to the tranquility of my passions; I then found myself seated in an unatmospheric firmament (which was free from cloud and rain); and in an uncreated creation (i.e. in the everlasting vacuity or eternal sunshine of heaven).

30. I am none of egoism, nor is it anything to me; having got rid of it, I have become one with clear intellectual vacuum.

31. In this respect, all intelligent men are of the same opinion with myself; as it is well known to them that our notion of egoism is as false, as the fallacy of fire represented in a painting.

32. Being certain of the unreality of yourself and of others, and of the nihility of everything beside; conduct yourself in all your dealings with indifference, and remain as mute as a stone.

33. Let your mind shine with the clearness of the vault of heaven, and be as impregnable to the excess of all thoughts and feelings as solid stone. Know that there is but One Intellectual essence from beginning to end, and that there nothing to be seen except the One-deity, who composes the whole plenum.

Ráma said:—O venerable sir, what an extensive, noble, grand and clear prospect have you exposed to my sight; (by showing the infinite of time and place to be composed of the essence of the supreme deity).

2. I find also by my percipience, that the entity of the One and sole Ens, fills the whole space at all times and places; and that it is the essence which shows itself alike in every manner and form always and every where forever and evermore.

3. I have yet some scruples sir, rankling in my breast, and hope you will please to remove them, by explaining unto me the meaning of your story of the stone (you mentioned before).

4. Vasishtha replied:—Ráma, I will relate to you the story of the stone, in order to stablish that this whole or the plenum, is existent in all times and in all places (with the Divine essence).

5. I will elucidate to you by means of this story, how thousands of worlds are contained within the compact and solid body of a stone (as the thoughts of all things, are comprised in the density of the Divine Intellect).

6. I will also show to you in this story, how the grand material world (which is as compact as a stone, is contained in its immaterial or airy ideal state, in the vast vacuity of the divine mind).

7. You will also find from this story, that there is in the midst of all plants and their seeds, and in the hearts of all living animals, as also in the bosom of the elementary bodies of water and air as of earth and fire, sufficient space containing thousands of productions of their own kinds.

2868. Ráma rejoined:—If you say, O sage, that all vegetables and living beings are full with the productions of their respective kinds, then why is it that we do not perceive the numerous productions, which abound in the empty air?

9. Vasishtha replied:—I have already told you Ráma, much about this first and essential truth; that the whole of this creation which appears to our sight, is empty air and subsisting in the inane vacuum only.

10. In the first place there is nothing that was ever produced in the beginning, nor is there anything which is in existence at present; all this that appears as visible to us is no other than Brahma Himself, and subsisting in his Brahmic or plenary immensity or fullness. (So the sruti: The Lord is full in the fulness of his creation &c.).

11. There is no room for an atom of earth, to find its place in the fulness of the divine Intellect, which is filled with its ideal worlds; nor do the material worlds exist in Brahma, who is of the form of pure vacuum.

12. There is no room even for a spark of fire, to have its place in the intellectual creation of God which admits of no gap or pore in it; nor do these worlds exist in any part of Brahma, who is entirely a pure vacuity.

13. There is no possibility also for a breath of air, to subsist in the imporous fulness of the intellectual creation of God; nor doth any of these (earthly, luminous or aerial) worlds, exist in the purely vacuous Intellect of Brahma.

14. There is not even a jot of the visible vacuity, that finds a place in the intensity of the ideal creation in the divine mind; nor is it possible for any of these visible worlds, to subsist in the compact vacuum of the deity.

15. The five great elementary bodies, have no room in the consolidated creation of God, which subsists in its vacuous form in the vacuity of the Divine Intellect.

16. There is nothing created any where, but it is the vacuum and in the vacuity of the great spirit of God.

17. There is no atom of the great spirit of God, which is not full of creations or created things; nor is there any creation 287or created thing, but is the void and in the vacancy of the Divine spirit.

18. There is no particle of Brahma, distributed in the creation: because the Lord is spirit, and always full in Himself. (The Divine soul, admits no materiality nor divisibility in its nature).

19. The creation is the supreme Brahma, and the Lord is the creation itself; there is not the slightest tint of dualism in them, as there is no duality of fire and its heat.

20. It is improper to say that this is creation and the other is Brahma, and to think them as different from one another; just as it is wrong to consider a dáru and dárya (a tree and tearable) as two things, from the difference in the sounds of the words (of the same meaning). (So Brahma immensity and srishti—creation are synonymous terms differing in sound).

21. There exists no difference of them, when their duality disappears into unity; and when we can not have any idea of their difference, unless we support the gross dualistic theory (which is absurd).

22. We know all this as one clear and transparent space, which is without its beginning and end, and quite indestructible and tranquil in its nature; and knowing this all wise men remain as mute as a piece of solid stone, even when they are employed in business.

23. Look at this whole creation as whether extinct in the Deity, and view the visible world as a vast void only; look upon your egoism and tuism as mere fallacies, and behold the Gods and demigods and the hills and everything else as the visionary appearances in our dream, which spread their nil of delusion over the minds of men (even in their waking state).

Ráma rejoined:—Relate to me, O sage, of your acts of a whole century, after you had risen from your trance, in the cell of your aerial abode.

2. Vasishtha replied:—After I had awakened from my trance, I heard a soft and sweet sound, which <was> slow but distinctly audible, and was clearly intelligible both in sound and sense.

3. It was as soft and sweet, as if it proceeded from female voice; and musical to the ear; and as it was neither loud nor harsh owing to its effeminacy, I kept to watch whence the words were heard.

4. It was as sweet as the humming of the bees, and as pleasing as the tune of wired instruments; it was neither the chime of crying nor the rumble of reading, but as the buzzing of black bees, known to men as the visa-koshi strain in vocal music.

5. Hearing this strain for a long time, and seeking in vain whence it came, I thought within myself: “It is a wonder that I hear the sound, without knowing its author, and from which of the ten sides of heaven it proceeds.”

6. This part of the heavens, said I, is the path of the siddhas (or spirits of sanctified saints), and on the other side I see an endless vacuity; I passed over millions of miles that way, and then I sat there awhile and pondered in my mind.

7. How could such feminine voice, proceed from such a remote and solitary quarter; where I see no vocalist with all my diligent search.

8. I see the infinite space of the clear and inane sky lying before me, where I find no visible being appearing to my sight notwithstanding all my diligent search.

2899. As I was thinking in this manner, and looking repeatedly on all sides, without seeing the maker of the sonant sound; I thought on a plan in the following manner.

10. That I must transform myself to air, and be one with the inane vacuum; and then make some sound in the empty air, which is the receptacle of sound. (The air is said to be the vehicle and medium of sound, which is called the property of air).

11. I thought on leaving my body in its posture of meditation, as I was sitting before; and with the vacuous body of my intellect, mix with the inane vacuum, as a drop of water mixes with water.

12. Thinking so, I was about to forsake my material frame, by sitting in my posture of Padmásana, and betaking myself to my samádhi or intense meditation, and shut my eyes closely against all external sights.

13. Having then given up my sensations of all external objects of sense, I became as void as my intellectual vacuum, preserving only the feeling of my consciousness in myself.

14. By degrees I lost my consciousness also, I became a thinking principle only; and then I remained in my intellectual sphere as a mirror of the world (i.e. to reflect the reflexions of all worldly things in their abstracted light).

15. Then with that vacuous nature of mine, I became one with the universal vacuum; and melted away as a drop of water with the common water, and mixed as an odour in the universal receptacle of empty air.

16. Being assimilated to the great vacuum, which is omnipresent and pervades over the infinite space; I became like the endless void, the reservoir and support of all, although I was formless and supportless myself.

17. In my formless (of endless space), I began to look into myriads of worlds and mundane eggs, that lay countless in my infinite and unconscious bosom.

18. These worlds were apart from, and unseen by and unknown to one another; and appeared with all their motions 290and manners, as mere spaces to each other (i.e. they are at such great distance that they could not be seen all at once).

19. As visions in a dream appearing thickly to a dreaming man, and as nothing to the sleeping person; so the empty space abounds with worlds to their observers, and as quite vacant to the unobservant spiritualist.

20. Here many things are born, to grow and decay and die away at last; and what is present is reckoned with the past, and what was in the womb of futurity, comes to existence in numbers.

21. Many magic scenes and many aerial castles and buildings, together with many a kingdom and palace, are built in this empty air, by the imaginations of men.

22. Here there were to be seen many edifices with several apartments counting from unit to the digit (and these are the various systems of philosophy, with one and many more number, of their respective categories).

23. There were some structures, constructed with ten or sixteen apartments; and others which had dozens and three dozens of doors, attached to them. (The predicaments of the Nyáya and Jaina systems of philosophy. But Buddhism or Jain Atheism is called Nirávarana, having no category but vacuity).

24. The whole ethereal space is full of the five primary elements, which compose elementary bodies of single or double and triple natures.

25. Some of these bodies are composed of quadruple, quintuple and hextuple elements, and others of seven different elementary principles called seven fold great elements—Sapta-mahá-bhutas. (They are the five subtile elements of earth, water, fire, air and vacuum, and the two principles of time and space, all which subsist in vacuity).

26. So there are many super-natural natures, which are beyond the power of your conception (as the Gods, demons and other etherial beings), and so there are spaces of everlasting darkness, without the light of the sun and moon.

27. Some parts of the void were devoid of creation, and others were occupied by Brahmá the creator—their master, some 291parts were under the dominion of the patriarchs or lords of creatures, and under influence of various customs.

28. Some parts were under the control of the vedas, and others were ungoverned by regulations of sástras; some parts were full of insects and worms, and others were peopled by gods and other living beings.

29. In some parts the burning fires of daily oblations were seen to rise, and at others the people were observant of the traditional usages of their respective tribes only (without knowing their reasons).

30. Some parts were filled with water, and others were the regions of storms; some bodies were fixed in the remote sky, and others were roving and revolving in it continually.

31. The growing trees were blossoming in some parts, and others were fructifying and ripening at others. There were the grazing animals moving pronely in some place, and others were teeming with living beings.

32. The Lord alone is the whole creation, and He only is the totality of mankind; He is the whole multitude of demons, and He too is the whole shoal of worms every where.

33. He is not afar from anything, but is present in every atom that is contained in his bosom. All things are growing and grown up in the cell of vacuity, like the coatings of the plantain tree.

34. Many things are growing unseen and unknown to each other, and never thought of together, such are the dreams of soldiers which are unseen by others.

35. There are endless varieties of creations, in the unbounded womb of vacuum, all of different natures and manners; and there are no two things of the same character and feature.

36. All men are of different sástras, faiths and persuasions from one another, and these are of endless varieties; they are as different in their habits and customs, as they are separated from each other in their habitations and localities.

37. So there are worlds above worlds, and the spheres of the spirits over one another; so there are a great many big elemental 292bodies, like the hills and mountains that come to our sight.

38. It will be impossible for understandings like yours, to comprehend the incoherent (unusual) things, which are spoken by men like ourselves (i.e. inspired sages, who talk of wonders beyond the common comprehension).

39. We must derive the atoms of spiritual light, which proceeds from the sphere of vacuum; as we feel the particles of mental light which issues from the orb of sun of our intellect. (Here the author speaks of the lights of the sun, intellect and spirit).

40. Some are born to remain just as they are, and become of no use to any one at all; and others become some what like themselves as the leaves of forest trees.

41. Some are equal to others, and many that are unlike to them; for sometime as alike to one another, and at others they differ in their shapes and nature (it is difficult to make out the meaning of these passages, not given in the gloss).

42. Hence there are various results of the great tree of spirituality, among which some are of the same kinds and others, of different sorts.

43. Some of these are of short duration, and others endure for longer periods; there are some of temporary existence, and others endure for ever.

44. Some have no determinate time (for want of the sun and moon), to regulate its course; and others are spontaneous in their growth and continuance.

45. The different regions of the sky, which lie in the concavity of boundless vacuum, are in existence from unknown periods of time, and in a state beyond the reach of our knowledge.

46. These regions of the sky, this sun and these seas and mountains, which are seen to rise by hundreds to our sights, are the wonderful display of our Intellect in the sky, like the chain of dreams in our sleep.

47. It is from our erroneous notions, and the false idea of 293a creative cause, that we take the unreal earth and all other appearances as they are really existent ones.

48. Like the appearance of water in the mirage, and the sight of two moons in the sky; do these unreal phenomena present themselves to our view, although they are altogether false.

49. It is the imaginative power of the Intellect, which create these images as clouds in the empty air; they are raised high by the wind of our desire, and roll about with our exertions and pursuits.

50. We see the gods, demigods and men, flying about like flies and gnats about a fig tree; and its luscious fruits are seen to hang about it, and shake with the winds of heaven.

51. It is only from the naturally creative imagination of the Intellect, likening the sportive disposition of boys, that the toys of fairy shapes are shown in the empty air.

52. The false impressions of I, thou, he and this, are as firmly affixed in the mind, as the clay dolls of boys are hardened in the sunlight and heat.

53. It is the playful and ever active destiny, that works all these changes in nature; as the genial vernal season, fructifies the forest with its moisture.

54. Those that are called the great causes of creation, are no causes of it; nor are those that are said to be created, created all, but all is a perfect void. They have sprung of themselves in the vacuity of the Intellect.

55. They all exist in their intellectual form, though they appear to be manifest as otherwise; the perceptibles are all imperceptible, and the existent is altogether inexistent.

56. The fourteen worlds, and the eleven kinds of created beings; are all the same in the inner intellect, as they appear to the outward sight.

57. The heaven and earth, and the infernal regions, and the whole host of our friends and foes, are all nullities in their true sense though they seem to be very busy in appearance.

58. All things are as inelastic fluid, as the fluidity of the sea waters; they are as fragile as the waves of the sea in their inside, though they appear as solid substances on the outside.

29459. They are the reflexions of the supreme soul, as the day light is that of the sun; they all proceed from and melt away into the vacuous air as the gusts of winds.

60. The egoistic understanding, is the tree bearing the foliage of our thoughts.

61. The rituals and their rewards, which are prescribed in the vedas and puránas, are as the fanciful dreams occurring in light sleep; but they are buried into oblivion by them and are led up in the sound sleep like the dead.

62. The Intellect like a Gandharva architect, is in the act of building many fairy cities in the forest of intellectuality, and lighted with the light of its reason, blazing as the bright sun-beams.

63. In this manner, O Ráma, I beheld in my meditative revelry, many worlds to be created and scattered without any cause, as a blind man sees many false sights in the open air.

Vasishtha continued:—Then I went on forward to find out the spot of the etherial sounds, and continued journeying onward in the vacuous region of my excogitation, without any interruption from any side.

2. I heard far beyond me the sound that came to my ears, resembling the jingling thrill of the Indian lute; it became more distinct as I appeared nearer to it, till I heard the metrical cadence of Arya measure in it.

3. As I glanced in my meditation at the site of the sound, I beheld a damsel on one side as fair as liquid gold, and brightening that part of the sky (by the blaze of her beauteous body).

4. She had necklaces pendant on her loose garments, and her eyelashes were tinged with lac-dye, and with loosened traces and fluttering locks of her hair, she appeared as the goddess of prosperity (sitting in the air).

5. Her limbs were as calm and handsome, as they were made of pure gold; and sitting on the way side with the near-blown bloom of her youth, she was as odorous as the goddess Flora, and handsome in every part of her body.

6. Her face was like the full moon, and was smiling as a cluster of flowers; her countenance was flushed with her youth, and her eyelids betokened her good fortune.

7. She was seated under the vault of heaven, with the brightness of her beauty blooming as the beams of the full moon; and decorated with ornaments of pearls, she walked gracefully towards me.

8. She recited with her sweet voice, the verses in the Arya metre by my side; and smiled as she recited them in a high tone of her voice, saying:—

2969. I salute thee, O sage, she said, whose mind is freed from the evil propensities of those, that are deluded to fall into the currents of this world; and to whom you are a support, as a tree standing on its border.

10. Hearing this I looked upon that sonant charming face, and seeing the maiden with whom I had nothing to do, I disregarded her and went on forward.

11. I was then struck with wonder, on viewing the magic display of the mundane system, and was inclined to wander through the air, by slighting the company of the damsel.

12. With this intention in my mind, I left the etherial dame in the air; and assumed an aerial form in order to traverse the etherial regions, and scan the phantasmagoria of the world.

13. As I went on viewing the wondrous worlds, scattered about in the empty sky; I found them no better than empty dreams, or the fictions in works of imagination.

14. I neither saw nor ever heard of anything at any place, about those creations and creatures, that existed in those former kalpas and great kalpa ages of the world (nor the world destroying deluges of yore).

15. I did not see the furious pushkara and ávarta clouds (of the great deluge), nor the portentous and raging whirlwinds of old; I heard no thunder claps, that split the mighty mountains, and broke the worlds asunder.

16. The conflagration of diluvian fire, which cracked the edifices of Cuvera, and the burning rays of a dozen of solar orbs were to be seen no more.

17. The lofty abodes of the gods, which were hurled headlong on the ground, and the crackling noise of the falling mountains, were no more to be seen or heard.

18. The flame of the diluvian fire, which raged with tremendous roar all about, and boiled and burnt away the waters of the etherial oceans, were now no more.

19. There was no more that hideous rushing of waters, which over flooded the abodes of the gods, demigods and men; nor that swelling of the seven oceans, which filled the whole world, up to the face of the solar orb.

29720. The peoples all lay dead and insensible of the universal deluge, like men laid up in dead sleep, and sung the battle affray in their sleep.

21. I beheld thousands of Brahmás, Rudras and Vishnus, disappearing in the different kalpa or diluvian ages of the world.

22. I then dived in my excogitation, into those dark and dreary depths of time, when there were no kalpa nor yuga ages, nor years and days and nights, nor the sun and moon, nor the creation and destruction of the world.

23. All these I beheld in my intellect, which is all in all, to which all things belong, and which is in every place; it is the intellect which engrosses every thing in itself, and shows itself in all forms.

24. Whatever, O Ráma, you say to be anything, know that thing to be the intellect only; and this thing being rarer than the subtile air, know it next to nothing.

25. Therefore it is this empty air, which exhibits every thing in it under the name of the world; and as the sound proceeding from the empty air, melts again into the air, so all things are aerial and the transcendent air only.

26. All these phenomena and their sight are simply erroneous, and appertain to the vacuous intellect alone; and are exhibited as foliage of the aerial tree (which I know is false and nothing).

27. The intellect and vacuum are identic and of the same nature with themselves, and this I came to understand from the entire absence of all my desires.

28. These worlds that are linked together in the chain of the universe, and lie within the limits of the ten sides of it, are but One Brahma only; and the infinite vacuity, with all its parts of space and time, and all forms of things and actions, are the substance and essence of Brahma only.

29. In this manner, I saw in manifold worlds that were manifested before me, many a great muni like myself; all sons of the great Brahmá, and named as Vasishthas, and men of great holiness and piety.

29830. I saw many revolutions of the tretá age, with as many Rámas in them; I marked the rotation of many Satya and Dwápara periods (the golden and brazen ages) of the world, which I counted by hundreds and thousands.

31. From my common sense of concrete particulars, I saw this changing state of created things; but by the powers of my reflexion and generalization, I found them all to be but one Brahma, extended as the infinite vacuity from all eternity.

32. It is not to be supposed, that the world subsists in Brahma or He in this (as either the container or contained of the whole); but Brahma is the uncreated and endless all himself, and whatever bears a name or is thought of in our understanding.

33. He is like a block of silent stone, that bears no name or epithet; but is of the form of pure light, which is termed the world also.

34. This light shines within the sphere of the infinite intellect, which is beyond the limit of our finite intelligence; it manifests itself in the form of the world, which is as formless as the other, and is as unknown to us, as anything in our dreamless sleep.

35. Brahma is no other than himself, and all else is only his reflexion; His light is the light of the world, and shows us all things like the solar light.

36. It is by that light, that these thousands of worlds appear to view; and that we have the notion of heat in the lunar disk, and of cold in the solar orb(?)

37. We see some creatures that see in the dark, and do not see in the day light; such are the owls and bats (asses?), and so there are men of the same kind.

38. There are many here, that are lost by their goodness, while there are others, who thrive and ascend to heaven by their wickedness; some <that> come <to> life by drinking of poison, and many that die by the taste of nectar.

39. Whatever a thing appears to be by itself, or whatsoever is thought of it in the understanding of another, the same 299comes to occur and is presented to the lot of every one, be it good or evil.

40. The world is a hanging garden in the air, with all its orbs fixed as trees with their firm roots in it and yet rolling and revolving about, like the shaking leaves and tossing fruits of this arbour.

41. The sand like mustard seeds being crushed under stony oil mills, yield the fluid substance of oil; and the tender flower of lotus, grows out of the clefts of rocks. (So things of one nature produce another of a different kind).

42. The moving images that are carved out of stone or wood, are seen to be set in the company of goddesses; and to converse with them. (The gloss gives no explanation of this unintelligible passage).

43. The clouds of heaven are seen to shroud many things as their vests, and many trees are found to produce fruits of different kinds every year.

44. All terrestrial animals are seen to move upon the earth, in different and changing forms with different kinds of the members of their bodies and heads.

45. The lower worlds (regions) are filled with human beings, that are without the pale of the vedas and sástras; and live without any faith, religion, and lead their lives in the state of beasts.

46. Some places are peopled by heartless peoples, who are without the feelings of love and desire; and others who are not born of women, but appear to be strewn as stones on the ground.

47. There are some places, which are full of serpents that feed upon air only; and others where gems and stones are taken in an indifferent light; some again where the indigent are without avarice and pride.

48. There were some beings, who look on their individual souls, and not on those of others; and others who regard the universal soul, that resides alike in all. (i.e. In all the four kinds of living creatures).

49. As the hairs and nails and other members of a person, 300are parts of his same body, though they grow in different parts of it; so do all beings appertain to the One universal soul, which is to be looked upon in all.

50. The one infinite and boundless vacuum, seems as many skies about the different worlds which it encompasseth; and it is by the exertion of Divine energy, that these empty spaces are filled with worlds.

51. There are some who are entirely ignorant of the meaning of the word liberation (which is freedom from the knowledge of everything beside Brahma); and move about as wooden machines without any sense in them.

52. Some creatures have no knowledge of astronomical calculation, and are ignorant of the course of time; while there are others quite deaf and dumb, and conduct themselves by signs and motions of their bodies.

53. Some are devoid of the sense of sight of their eyes, and the light of the sun and moon, are all in vain to them.

54. Some have no life in them, and others have no sense of smelling the sweet odours; some are quite mute and cannot utter any sound, while others are deprived of the sense of their hearing.

55. There are some who are entirely dumb, and without the power of speech; and some again that having no power of touch or feeling, are as insensible blocks or stones.

56. Some have their sense (of conception) only, without possessing the organs of sense; and others that manage themselves as foul Pisáchas or goblins, and are therefore inadmissible in human society.

57. There are some made of one material only (as solid earth), and others have no solidity in them (as air &c.); some are composed of the watery substance, and others are full of fiery matter in them.

58. Some are full of air, and some there are of all forms (i.e. capable to do anything). All these are of vacuous forms, and are shown in the vacuity of the understanding. (This is an effect of a yoga called prakámya siddhi or the power of seeing every thing in the mind or imagination).

30159. So the surface of the earth, and air and water, teem with living beings, and the frogs live in the cell of stones, and the insects dwell in the womb of the earth.

60. There are living beings living in vast bodies of water, as in lands, forests and mountains; and so there are living creatures skimming in the other elements and air, as the finny tribes move about and swim in the air.

61. There are living things also, peopling the element of fire, and moving in fiery places, where there is no water to be had; and there they are flying and flitting about as sparks and particles of fire.

62. The regions of air are also filled with other kinds of living beings; and these have airy bodies like the bilious flatulency which runs all over the body.

63. Even the region of vacuum is full of animal life; and these have vacuous bodies, moving in their particular forms.

64. Whatever animals are shut up in the infernal caves, or skip aloft in the upper skies; and those that remain, and rove about all sides of the air; these and all those which inhabit and move about the many worlds in the womb of the great vacuum, were seen by me in the vacuity of my Intellect.

Vasishtha continued:—It is from the face of the firmament of Divine Intellect, that the atmosphere of our understandings, catch the reflexion of this universe; just as the waters of the deep, receive the images of the clouds in the upper sky. It is this Intellect which gives us life, and guides our minds.

2. These living souls and minds of ours, are of the form of the clear sky; and these countless worlds, are productions of empty vacuity.

3. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, that after all kinds of beings were entirely liberated, from the bonds of their bodies and their souls also, at the universal annihilation of things; what is it that comes to be created again, and whence it gets it undone also.

4. Vasishtha replied:—Hear me tell you, how at the great destruction or deluge, all things together with the earth, water, air, fire and the sky, and the spheres of heaven vanish away, and are liberated from their respective forms; and how this universe comes to appear again to our imagination.

5. There remains alone the undefinable spirit of God after this, which is styled the great Brahma and Supreme Intellect by the sages; and this world remains in the heart of that being, from which it altogether inseparable and indifferent.

6. He is the Lord, and all this is contained in the nature of this heart, which passeth under the name of the world, it is by his pleasure that he exhibits to us the notion that we have of the world, which is not his real form.

3037. Considering this well, we find nothing either as created or destroyed by him; but as we know the supreme cause of all to be imperishable by his nature, so do we know his heart to be indestructible also; and the great kalpa ages are only parts of Himself (as the divisions of time are only parts of eternity).

8. It is only our circumscribed knowledge, that shows us the differences and dualities of things; but these upon examination are not to be found and vanish into nothing.

9. Therefore there is nothing of anything, that is ever destroyed to nothing, nor is there anything which is ever produced from Brahma; who is unborn and invisible, and rests always in his tranquility.

10. He remains as the pure essence of intellect, in atoms of a thousand part of the particles of simple vacuity.

11. This world is verily the body of that great Intellect, how then can this mundane body (corpus mundi) come to be destroyed, without destruction of the other also (which is indestructible of its nature)?

12. As the intellect awakes in our hearts, even in our sleep and dream; so the world is present in our minds at all times, and presents unto us its airy or ideal form ever since its first creation.

13. The creation is a component part of the vacuous intellect and its rising and setting being but the airy and ideal operations of the intellect, there is no part of it that is ever created or destroyed of it at any time.

14. This spiritual substance of the intellect, is never susceptible of being burnt or broken or torn at anytime; it is not soiled or dried or weakened at all nor is it knowable or capable to be seen by them that are ignorant of it.

15. It becomes, whatever it has in its heart; and as it never perishes, so the notion of the world and all things which inhere in its heart (mind), is neither begotten nor destroyed in any wise.

16. It subsides and revives only, by cause of its forgetfulness and remembrance only at different times, and rising and 304setting of the notion, gives rise to the ideas of the creation and destruction of the world.

17. Whatever notion you have of the world, you become the same yourself; think it perishable, and you perish also with it; but know it as imperishable, and you become unperishing also.

18. Know then the creation and great destruction of the world, to be but recurrences of its notion and oblivion, and the two phases of the intellect only.

19. How can the production or destruction of anything, take place in the vacuity of the airy intellect; and how can any condition or change be attributed to the formless intellect at all?

20. The great kalpa ages and all periods of time, and parts of creation, are mere attributes of the intellect and the intellect but a predicate of Brahma, they all merge into the great Brahma alone.

21. The intellect is a formless and purely transparent substance, and the phenomenals are subject to its will alone; and it is according to the will or wish that one has in his heart (or mind), that he sees the object appear before him, like the fairy lands of imagination.

22. As the body of a tree is composed of its several parts, of the roots, trunk, branches, leaves, flowers, fruits and other things.

23. So the solid substance of the divine spirit, which is more translucent than the clear firmament, and which nothing can be predicated in reality, has the creation and great destructions &c. as the several conditions of its own essence.

24. So the various states of pleasure and pain, of happiness and misery, of birth, life and death, and of form and want of form, are but the different states of the same spirit.

25. And as the whole body of this spirit, is imperishable and unchangeable in its nature, so are all the states and conditions of its being also.

26. There is no difference in the nature and essence of the whole and its part, except that the one is more palpable to sight by its greater bulk than the other.

30527. As our consciousness, is the root of existence of a tree; so is our consciousness the root of our belief in the existence of God.

28. This consciousness shows us the varieties of things, as something in one place and another else where; it shows us the creation as a great trunk, and all the worlds as so many trees.

29. It shows some where the great continents, as the branches of these trees and their contents of hills &c., as their twigs and leaves; some where it shows the sunshine as its flowers, and darkness as the black bark of these trees.

30. Some where it shows the concavity of the sky as the hollow of the tree, and elsewhere the dissolution of creation as a vast desolation; it shows in one place the synod of gods as cluster of flowers, and other beings in another as bushes and brambles and cuticles of trees.

31. So are all these situated in the formless and vacuous consciousness, which is the great Brahma itself, and no other than the same nature with Brahma (in its clearness and transparency).

32. There was a past world, here is the present one, and in another a would be creation in futuro; are all but notions of our minds, and known to us by our consciousness of them, which is as unchangeable in its nature as Brahma himself.

33. Thus the supreme and self conscious soul of Brahma, being as transparent as clear firmament, there is no colour or cloud (or the changeful shadows of creation and destruction), which are attributed to it (by way of simile), with the shades of light and darkness in the orb of the moon.

34. How can there be the taint of anything in the transcendent, and transparent firmament, and can the imputation of the first, midst and last, and of far and near attach to infinity and eternity.

35. Want of a comprehensive and abstract knowledge, is the cause of attributing such and other qualities to the divine nature; and it is removed by right knowledge of the most perfect 306One. (These two are distinguished by the terms, the knowledge of the parágatmá and pralayátma?).

36. Ignorance known as such, by cognoscence of truth, is removed by itself; as a lamp is extinguished by the air which kindles the light (i.e. The knowledge of ignorance drives away ignorance).

37. As it is certain that the knowledge of one’s ignorance, is the cause of its removal; so the knowledge of the unlimited Brahma, makes him to be known as all in all.

38. Thus Ráma, have I expounded to you the meaning of liberation, consult it attentively with your conscience, and you will undoubtedly attain to it (in a short time).

39. This net work of worlds, is uncreated and without its beginning; yet it is apparent to sight by means of the spirit of Brahma, manifest in that form. Whoso contemplates with the eye of his reason, the eight qualities of the lord, becomes full with the divine spirit, although he is as mean as a straw in his living soul.

Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, whether you were sitting in one place, or wandering about in the skies, when you said all these with your vacuous and intellectual body.

2. Vasishtha replied:—I was then fraught with the infinite soul, which fills and encompasses the whole space of vacuum; and being in this state of ubiquity, say how could I have my transition from or fixed.

3. I was neither seated in any one place, nor was I moving about any where; I therefore was present every where, in the empty air with my airy spirit, and beheld everything in my self or soul. (This is said of the omnipresent soul).

4. As I see with my eyes, all the members of my body, as composing one body of mine from my head to foot, so I saw the whole universe in myself with my intellectual eyes.

5. Though my purely vacuous and intellectual soul, is formless and without any part or member as my body; yet the worlds formed its parts (by their being contained in it), and neither by the soul’s diffusion in them, nor by their being of the same nature and essence in their substance.

6. As an instance of this is your false vision of the world in your dream, of which you retain a real conception, though it is no other than an airy nothing or empty vacuity.

7. As a tree perceives in itself the growth of the leaves, fruits and flowers from its body; so I beheld all these rising in myself.

8. I saw all these in me, as the profound sea views the various marine animals in its bosom, as also the endless waves 308and whirlpools, and foam and froth, continually floating over its breast.

9. In short as all embodied beings, are conscious of the constituent members of their own bodies; I had the consciousness of all existence in my all knowing soul.

10. Ráma, I still retain the concepts of whatever I saw on land and water, and in the hills and dales, as they are embodied with my body; and I yet behold the whole creation, as if it were imprest in my mind.

11. I see the worlds exposed before me, to be lying within and without myself, as they lay in the inside and outside of the house; and my soul is full with all these worlds, which are unified with my understanding.

12. As the water knows (retains) its fluidity, and the frost possesses its coldness; and as the air has its ventilation, so the enlightened mind knows and scans the whole world within itself.

13. Whoever has a reasoning soul in him, and has attained a clear understanding; is possessed of the same soul as mine, which I know to be of the same kind.

14. After the understanding is perfected, by absence of knowledge of the subject and object, there is nothing that appears otherwise unto him, than the self same intelligent soul, which abides alike in all.

15. And as a man seated on a high hill, sees with his clear-sightedness, all objects to the distance of many furlongs; so from my elevation of yoga meditation, saw with my clair-voyance, all things situated far and near and within and without me.

16. As the earth perceives the minerals, metals and all things lying in its bowels; so I saw everything as identical with and no other than myself. (Anányat—non alter).

17. Ráma rejoined:—Be this as it may, but tell me, O Brahman, what became of that bright eyed (lit. aureate-eyed) dame, that had been reciting the árya verses.

18. Vasishtha replied:—That aerial damsel of aeriform body, that recited in the árya metre; advanced courteously towards me, and sat herself beside me in the air.

30919. But she being as aeriform as myself, could not be seen by me in her form of the spirit. (Do not the spirits see each other?).

20. I was of the aeriform spirit, and she also had an airlike body; and worlds appeared as empty air, in my airy meditation in aerial seat (of the sky where I was seated).

21. Ráma rejoined:—The body is the seat of the organs of sense and action of breathing, how then could the bodiless spirit utter the sounds of the articulate words which composed the verse?

22. How is it possible for a bodiless spirit, either to see a sight or think of anything (without the eye & mind). Explain to me these inexplicable truths, of the facts you have related.

23. Vasishtha replied:—The seeing of sights, the thinking of thoughts, and the uttering of sounds; are all productions of empty air, as they occur in our airy dreams (i.e. they are all caused by air). (The air being the receptacle of the light of things, the vehicle of sound, and framer of fancy).

24. The sight of a thing and the thought of any thing, depend on the aerial intellect, as they do in our aerial dream; and these are impressed in the hollowness of the intellect, both in the waking as well as dreaming states.

25. Not only is that sight, but whatever is the object of any of our senses, and the whole world itself, is the clear and open sky (and the idea of their substantiality, is altogether erroneous).

26. The transcendent first principle, is of the form of the unknowable intellect; which exhibits itself in the constitution of the universe, which is verily its very nature. (Hence called the mundane God or the god of nature; or as the poet says: Whose body nature is, and God the soul).

27. What proof have you of the existence of the body and its senses? Matter is mere illusion, and as it is with other body, so it is with ours also. (The sruti says: see the formless one under all forms &c.).

28. This is as that One, and that is as this. (i.e. The world appears to be as the intellect shows it &c.). But the unreal 310(matter) is taken for the real (spirit); and the real is understood as an unreality.

29. As the uses that are made of the earth, its paths and houses in a dream, prove to be false and made in empty air upon waking; so the applications made of the words my, thy, his &c., made in our waking, are all buried in oblivion in the state of our sound sleep (when we have lost the consciousness of our personality).

30. All our struggles, efforts and actions in life time, are as false and void as empty air; and resemble the bustle, commotion and fighting of men in dream, which vanish into nothing in their waking.

31. If you ask whence comes this phenomenon of dreaming, and whence proceed all its different shapes and varieties? To this nothing further can be said regarding its origin, than that it is the reproduction or remembrance of the impressions (preserved in the mind).

32. In answer to the question, why and how does a dream appear to us it may only be said that, there is no other cause of its appearance to you, than that of the appearance of this world unto you (i.e. as you see this before you, so you see the other also).

33. We have the dreaming man, presented to us in the person of Virát from the very beginning of creation; and this being is situated in open air with its aeriform body, in the shape of the dreamer and dream mixed up together.

34. The word dream that I have used and adduced to you, as an instance to explain the nature of the phenomenal world; is to be understood as it is neither a reality nor an unreality either, but the only Brahma himself.

35. Now Ráma, that lovely lady who became my loving companion, was accosted by me in the form in which I beheld her in my consciousness.

36. I conversed with her ideal figure, and in my clairvoyant state, just as men seen in a dream, talked with one another (or as spirits commune and communicate with themselves).

31137. Our conference together, was of that spiritual kind, as it was held between men in a dream; so was our conversation as airy, as our persons and spirits; and so Ráma, must you know the whole worldly affair, is but an airy and fairy play.

38. So the world is a dream, and the dream a phantasm of air; they are the same void with but different names; the phantom of the waking day time, being called the world, and of sleeping night time a dream.

39. This scene of the world, is the dream of the soul; or it is the empty air or nothing; it is the clear understanding of God or his own essence that is so displayed.

40. The nightly dream needs a dreamer, and a living person also in order to see the same, such as I, thou, he or any body else; but not so the day dream of the world, which is displayed in the vacuity of the clear intellect itself.

41. As the viewer of the world is the clear vacuum of the intellect, so its view also is as clear as its viewer; the world being of the manner of a dream, it is as subtile as the rare atmosphere.

42. When the empty dream of the world appears of itself, in the vacuous and formless intellect within the hollow of the mind (or heart) and has no substantiality in it; how then is it said to be a material substance, when it is perceived in the same manner by the immaterial intellect?

43. When the visionary world, appearing in a dream of corporeal beings as ourselves, proves to be but empty void and vacuity; how do you take it for a material substance, when it is contained in its immaterial form, in the incorporeal spirit and intellect of God, and why not call it an empty air, when it resides in the manner of a dream in the Divine Intellect?

44. The Lord sees this uncreated world, appearing before him as in a dream.

45. The Lord Brahmá (in the form of the Hiranya-Garbha), has framed this creation in air, with the soft clay of his vacuous intellect; and all these bodies with numerous cavities in them, appear as created and uncreated in the same time.

31246. There is no causality, nor the created worlds nor their occupants; know there is nothing and nothing at all, and knowing this likewise and as mute as stone; and go on doing your duties to the last, and care not whether your body may last long or be lost to you.

Ráma rejoined:—O sage, how could you hold your conference with the incorporeal maid, and how could she utter the letters of the alphabet, without her organs of speech?

2. Vasishtha replied:—The incorporeal or vacuous bodies, have of course no power or capability of pronouncing the articulate letters of the alphabet; just as dead bodies incapable of speech.

3. And should there even be an articulate sound, yet there can be no intelligible sense in it; and must <be> unintelligible to others; just as a dream though perceived by the dreamer, is unknown to the sleepers in the same bed and side by side.

4. Therefore, there is nothing real in a dream; it is really an unreality and the ideal imagery of the Intellect in empty air, and concomitant with sleep of its own nature. (i.e. Sleep and dream are twins by their nature).

5. The clear sky of the intellect, is darkened by its imageries (ideas), like the disk of the moon by its blackness, and as the body (face) of the sky by its clouds; but these are as false as the song of a stone, and the sound of a dead body.

6. The dreams and images (ideas), which appear in the sphere of the intellect, are no other than appearances of itself; as the visible sky is nothing else, than the invisible vacuum itself.

7. Like the appearance of dreams in a sleep, doth this world appear before us in our waking state; so the invisible vacuum appears as the visible (sky to our eye). So the form of the 314dame was a shape of the intellect (i.e. that is a creature of imagination only. Gloss).

8. It is the very clever intellect in us, which exhibits all these varieties of exquisite shapes in itself; and shows this world to be as real and permanent as itself (though in truth, they are as unreal and fleeting dreams).

9. Ráma rejoined:—Sir, if these be but dreams, how is it they appear to us in our waking state; and if they are unreal, why is it that they seem as solid realities unto us?

10. Vasishtha replied:—Hear how the visionary dreams, appear as substantial worlds; though they are no other than dreams, and never real, and in no way solid or substantial.

11. The seeds of our notions are playing at random as dust, in the spacious sky of the intellect; some of them are of the same kind and others dissimilar to one another, and productive of like and unlike results.

12. Some of these are contained one under the other, like the cuticles of plantain trees; and there are many others that have no connection with another, and are quite insensible and unknown to others.

13. They do not see each other, nor know anything of one another; but as inert seeds they moulder and moisten in the same heap. (It means the ideas that haunt us in our sleep and waking).

14. These notions being as void and blank as vacuum, are not as shadows in the visible sky; nor are they known to one another, and though they are of sensible shapes, yet they are as ignorant of themselves, as it were under the influence of sleep.

15. Those that sleep in their ignorance, find the world appearing to them in the shape of a dream, by the daytime and act according as they think themselves to be. So the Asura demigods being situated in their dreaming (or visionary world), think themselves to be fighting with and worsted by the Gods.

16. They could not be liberated owing to their ignorance 315nor were they reduced to the insensibility of stones; but remained dull and inactive in the visionary world of their dream.

17. Men laid up in the sleep of their ignorance, and seeing the dream of the world before them; act according to their custom, and observe how one man is killed by another (i.e. the mutual enmity of mankind).

18. There are other intelligent spirits, which being fast bound to their desires, are never awakened nor liberated from their ignorance; but continue to dwell on the visionary world, which they see in their day dream.

19. The Rákshasas also, that lie asleep in the visionary world of their dream, are placed in the same state as they were used to be by the gods (i.e. the unemancipated souls of all beings, dream of their former state).

20. Say then, O Ráma, what became of those Rákshasas, who were thus slain by Gods; they could neither obtain their liberation owing to their ignorance, nor could they be transformed to stones with their intelligent souls.

21. Thus this earth with its seas and mountains and peoples, that are seen to be situated in it; are thought to be as substantial as we think of ourselves by our prior notions of them. (This is the doctrine of Plato’s reminiscence, that the sight of the present existence, is but a representation of our remembrance of the past).

22. Our imagination of the existence of the world, is as that of other beings regarding it; and they think of our existence in this world in the same light, as we think of theirs.

23. To them our waking state appears as a dream, and they think us to be dreaming men, as we also think them to be; and as those worlds are viewed as visionary by us, so is this of ours but one of them also.

24. As other people have the notion of their existence from their reminiscence alone, so have we of ourselves and theirs also, 316from the ubiquious nature or omnipresence of the intellectual soul.

25. As those dreaming men think of their reality, so do others think of themselves likewise; and so art thou as real as any one of them.

26. As thou beholdest the cities and citizens to be situated in thy dream, so do they continue to remain there in the same manner to this day; because God is omnipresent everywhere and at all times.

27. It is by your waking from the sleep of ignorance, and coming to the light of reason; that these objects of your dream will be shorn of their substantiality, and appear in their spiritual light as manifestation of God himself.

28. He is all and in all, and every where at all times; so as He is nothing and nowhere, nor is He the sky nor is ever anything that destroyed. (Or produced).

29. He abides in the endless sky, and is eternal without beginning and end; He abides in the endless worlds, and in the infinity of souls and minds.

30. He lives throughout the air and in every part of it, and in all orbs and systems of worlds; He resides in the bosom of every body, in every island and mountain and hill.

31. He extends all over the extent of districts, cities and villages; He dwells in every house, and in every living body. He extends over years and ages and all parts of time.

32. In him live all living beings, and those that are dead and gone, and have not obtained their liberation; and all the detached worlds are attached to him to no end and for ever.

33. Each world has its people, and all peoples have their minds. Again each mind has a world in it, and every world has its people also.

34. Thus the visibles having neither beginning nor end, are all but erroneous conceptions of the mind; they are no other than Brahma to the knower of God, who sees no reality in aught besides.

31735. There is but one only intellect, which pervades this earth below and the heaven above; which extends over the land and water, and lies in woods and stones, and fills the whole and endless universe. Thus wherever there is anything, in any part of this boundless world; they all inspire the idea of the divinity in the divine, while they are looked upon as sensible objects by the ungodly.

Vasishtha continued:—The graceful nymph with lotus like eyes, and her side long glances darting as a string of málati flowers, was then gently looked upon by me, and accosted with tenderness.

2. Who art thou sweet nymph, I said, that art as fair as the farina of the lotus floret, and comest to my company; say, whose and what thou art, where is thy abode and wither thou goest, and what thou desirest of me.

3. The nymph replied:—It is meet, O muni, that you greet me thus; that repair to you with a grieving heart, and will lay my case confidently before you for your kind advice to me.

4. There is in a corner of the cell of the great vault of vacuity, that this worldly dwelling of yours is situated.

5. This dwelling house of the world has three apartments in it, namely the earth, heaven, and the infernal regions; wherein the great architect (Brahmá) hath placed a dame by name of fancy, as a mistress of this dwelling.

6. Here is the sombre surface of the earth, appearing as the store-house of the world; and beset with numerous islands surrounded by oceans and seas. (The earth is said to be the mother and supporter of all worlds).

7. The earth stretches on all sides, with many islands in the midst of its seas and with many a mine of gold underneath, and extending to ten thousand yojans in its length.

8. It is bright and visible itself, and is as fair as the vault of heaven; it supplies us with all the objects of our desire, and vies with the starry heaven by the lustre of its gems.

9. It is the pleasure and promenading ground of gods, 319siddha spirits and apsara nymphs; it abounds with all objects of desire, and fraught with all things of our enjoyment.

10. It has at its two ends the two polar mountains, called the lokáloka ranges (for having one side of them always brightened by the sunlight, and the other ever darkened by the sunly night). The two polar circles resembling the two belts at both extremities of the earth.

11. One side of the polar mountains, is ever covered by darkness, like the minds of ignorant people; and the other side shines with eternal light, like the enlightened souls of the wise.

12. One side of these is as delightsome, as society with the good and wise; while the opposite side is as dark and dolesome, as company with the ignorant and vile.

13. On one side all things were as clear as the minds of intelligent men, and on the other, there was as impervious a gloom as it hangs over the minds of unlettered Bráhmanas.

14. On one part there was neither the sunshine nor the moon light to be had; and as one side presented the habitable world before it, so the other showed the vast void and waste beyond the limits of nature.

15. One side of these teemed with the cities of gods, and the other with those of demons; and as the one side lifted its lofty summits on high, so the other bent below towards the infernal regions.

16. Some where the vultures were hovering over the craters and at others the lands appeared charming to sight; while the mountain peaks appeared to touch the celestial city of Brahmá on high. (The city of Brahma loka, is situated in the highest heaven).

17. Some where there appears a dismal and dreary desert forest, with loud blasts of death hovering over them; and at others there are flower gardens and groves, with the nymphs of heaven, sitting and singing in them.

18. In one part of it there is the deep infernal cave, containing the horrible Kumbhanda demons in it; and in another 320are the beautiful nandana gardens with the hermitages of holy saints in them.

19. On one part there overhang the eternal clouds, roaring loudly like furious elephants, while raining clouds are showering on the other. There are deep and dark caverns <on> one part, and thick forest arbours on another.

20. The labouring woodmen are felling the trees of wood-lands, inhabited by evil spirits on one side or the hardy woodmen are driving away the devils on one side, by felling the woods of their haunts in the wood-lands; while the other is full of inhabited tracts, and men more polished in their manners, than the celestials of heaven.

21. Some places are laid desolate by their inhabitants, by the driving and whirling winds; and others secure from every harm, are flourishing in their productions (of animals and vegetables).

22. Some where are great and desolate deserts, dreary wastes dreadful with their howling winds; and in some places there are purling lakes of lotuses with rows of sounding cranes gracing their borders.

23. In some places, is heard the gurgling of waters, and the growlings of clouds in others; and in others are the gay and merry Apsaras, turned giddy with their swinging.

24. On one side the landscape is beset by horrible demons, and is shunned by all other beings; and on the other, the happy spirits of Siddhas, Vidyádharas and others, are seen to be sitting and singing by the side of cooling streams.

25. Somewhere the pouring clouds, caused the ever flowing rivers to encroach upon the lands; and there were the light and flimsy clouds also, flying as sheets of cloths, and driven by gusts of winds here and there.

26. There are the lotus bushes on one side, with swarms of humming bees, fluttering about their leafy faces; and there are seen the rubicund teeth of celestial damsels, blushing with the tincture of betel leaves on the other.

27. In one place is seen the pleasant concourse of people, pursuing their several callings under the shining sun; and in 321another the assemblage of hideous demons, dancing in their demoniac revelry in the darkness of night.

28. Somewhere the land is laid waste of its people, by havocs and portents befalling on them; and else where the country is smiling with its rising cities, under blessing of a good government.

29. Sometimes a dreary waste distracts, and at others a beautiful population attracts the sight; sometimes deep and dark caverns occur to view, and at others the dreadful abyss appears to sight.

30. Some spot is full of fruitful trees and luxuriant verdure, and another a dreary desert devoid of waters and living beings; some where you see bodies of big elephants, and at others groups of great and greedy lions.

31. Some places are devoid of animals, and others peopled by ferocious Rákshasas; some places are filled with the thorny karanja thickets, and others are full of lofty palma forests.

32. Somewhere are lakes as large and clear as the expanse of heaven, and at others there are vast barren deserts as void as the empty air. Somewhere there are tracts of continually driving sands, and there are goodly groves of trees at others, flourishing in all the seasons of the year.

33. This mountain has many a peak on its top, as high as ordinary hills and mounts elsewhere; and the kalpa clouds are perpetually settled upon them, blazing with the radiance of gems by the hues of heaven.

34. There are forests growing on the milk white and sunny stones of this mountain, and serving as abodes of foresters; and always resorted to by the breed of lions and monkeys.

35. There is a peak on the north of this mountain, with a grotto towards the east of it; and this cavern affords me a sequestered habitation, in its hard and stony bosom.

36. There I am confined, O sage, in that stony prison-house; and there methinks I have passed a series of yuga ages (of which there is no reckoning).

37. Not I alone, but my husband also is confined in the same cave with myself; and we are doomed to remain imprisoned 322therein, like bees closed up at night fall, within the cup of a closing lotus-flower.

38. Thus have I with my husband, continued to abide in the stony dungeon, for the very long period of very many years.

39. It is owing to our own fault, that we do not obtain our release even at the present time; but continue to remain there in the state of prisoners as ever and for ever.

40. But sir, it is not only ourselves that are confined in this stony prison-house; but all our family, friends and dependants, are enthralled in the same stronghold and to no end.

41. The ancient personage (purusha) of my twice-born husband, is there confined in his dungeon (of the body); and though he has remained there for many an age, yet he has never removed from his single seat.

42. He is employed in his studentship and studies (Brahmacharya), since his boyhood, attends to the hearing and reciting of the vedas; and is steadfast in his observances without swerving or deviation.

43. But I am not so, O sage, but doomed to perpetual distress; because I am unable, O sage, to pass a moment without his company.

44. Hear now, O sage, how I became his wife, and how there grew an unfeigned affection between us.

45. When that husband of mine had been still a boy, and acquired a little knowledge by remaining in his own house.

46. He thought in himself, saying, “Ah, I am a srotriya or vedic Bráhmana, and can it be possible for me to have a suitable partner for myself.”

47. He then produced me out of himself, in this beauteous figure of mine; in the manner that the lightsome moon causes the moonlight to issue out of his body. (In Sanskrit the moon is masculine, and the moonlight feminine; whence they are called nishápati and jyotsna). (So in Arabic qmar the moon is masculine, and shams the sun is feminine).

48. Being thus produced from the mind (of my husband), I remained as a mental consort of his; and grew up in time as the 323blossoms in spring, and as beautiful as the mandara plant in bloom.

49. My body became as bright, as the face of the sky by its nature; and all my features glittered like the stars in heaven. My countenance was as fair as the face of the full moon, and became attractive of all heart towards it.

50. My breasts were swollen as the buds of flower, and as luscious as a juicy fruit; and my arms and the palms of my hands, resembled two tender creepers with their rubicund leaflets.

51. I became the delight and captor of the hearts of living beings, and the side long glances of my all stretched antelope eyes, infatuated all minds with the maddening passion of love.

52. I was prone to the blandishments and dalliance of love, and prompt in quips and cranks and wreathed smiles, and glancings; I was fond of singing and music, and was insatiate in my joviality.

53. I was addicted to the enjoyment of all felicity, both in prosperity and adversity, both of which are alike friendly to me. I was never tempted by the delusive temptations of the one, nor ever frightened by the threatening persecution of the other.

54. I do not sustain the household of my Brahmanical lord alone, but I support, O sir, the mansions of the inhabitants of all the three worlds; because by my being a mental being, I have my access to all places far and near.

55. I am the legal wife of the Bráhmanas, and fit for the propagation and supportance of his offspring; as also for bearing the burden of this house of the triple. (Does it mean that this is capable of comprehending all what is contained in the three worlds?).

56. I am now grown a young woman, with my swollen up big breasts; and am as giddy paced with my youthful gaiety, as a cluster of flowers flouncing in the air.

57. My husband from his natural disposition of procrastination and studiousness, is employed in his austerities; and being in expectation of getting his liberation, is deferring to engage in his marriage with me to this day.

32458. But I being advanced in my youth, and fond of youthful dalliance (have given him my mind); and do now burn in the flame of my passion for him, like the lotus flower in a fiery furnace.

59. Though I am always cooling myself, with the cooling breeze of brooks and lotus lakes; yet I burn incessantly in all my body, as the sacrificial embers are reduced to ashes in the sacred fire place.

60. I see the garden grounds covered (smiling), with the flowers falling in showers from the shady trees; but I burn as the land under the burning sands, of the unshaded and burning desert.

61. The soft gurgling of waters, and the gentle breeze of lakes, full with blooming lotuses and lilies; and the sweet sounds of cranes and water fowls, are all rough and harsh to me.

62. Though decked with flowery wreaths and garlands, and swinging upon my cradle of flowers; yet methinks I am lying down upon a bed of thorns.

63. Sleeping on beds, formed of the soft leaves of lotuses and plantain-leaves; I find them dried under the heat of my body, and powdered to ashes by the pressure of my person.

64. Whatever fair, lovely, charming and sweet and pleasant things, I come to see and feel, I am filled with sorrow at their sight, and my eyes are suffused in tears.

65. My eyes steam with tears, from the heat of my inward bosom; and they trickle upon and fall down my eyelids, like dew drops on lotus leaves.

66. Swinging with my playmates, on the pendant boughs of plantain trees, in our pleasure gardens; I think of the burning grief in my heart, and burst out in tears, by covering my face with my hands (for fear of being detected in my love).

67. I look at our bowers of cooling plantain leaves, and strewn over with snows all over the ground; but fearing them as bushes of thorny brambles, I fly from them far away.

68. I see the blooming lotus of the lake, and the fond crane fondling with its stalk like arm, and then begin to contemn my youthful bloom.

32569. I weep at seeing whatever is handsome, and keep quiet at what is moderate; I delight in whatsoever beseems to be ugly, and I am happy in my utter insensibility of every thing.

70. I have seen the fair flowers of spring, and the hoary-frost of winter; and thought them all to be but heaps of the ashes of lovelorn dames, burnt down by the flame of love, and scattered by the relentless winds on all sides.

71. I have made me beds of the blue leaves of lotuses and other plants, and covered me with chaplets of snow white flowers; but found them to turn pale and dry by their contact with my body. So pity me, that my youthful days have all gone in vain.

After the lapse of a long time, I found my passions subsiding, and I grew as callous to my susceptibilites, as the tender greens become juiceless and dry after the autumn is over.

2. Seeing my husband grown old, and shorn of all his susceptivity and vivaciousness; and sitting quietly in his steadfast devotion with an unwavering mind, I thought my life to be useless to me.

3. And methought that early widowhood, and even premature death, or rather a lingering disease or lasting misery, are preferable to a female’s living without a loving husband.

4. It is the boon of life, and the greatest good fortune of a woman, to have a young and loving husband, who is of good and pleasant humour, and pliant in his manners.

5. A woman is given for lost, who has not a sweet and lovely spouse; as the understanding is lost which is not fraught with learning. In vain is prosperity when she favours the wicked, and in vain is a woman that is lost to shame. (Because modesty is the best quality of women).

6. She is the best of women, who is obedient to her husband; and that is the best fortune, which falls in the hands of the virtuous and good. That understanding is praised which is clear and capacious; and that goodness is good, which has a fellow feeling and equal regard for all mankind.

7. Neither disease nor calamity, nor dangers nor difficulties, can disturb the minds, or afflict the hearts of a loving pair, (bound together by mutual affection).

8. The prospect of the blossoming garden of Eden, and the flowery paths of paradise, appear as desert lands to women, 327that have no husbands, or such as wicked and unmannerly in their behaviour.

9. A woman may forsake all her worldly possessions, as of little value to her; but she can never forsake her husband, even for any fault on his part.

10. You see, O chief of sages, all these miseries to which I am subjected these very many years of my puberty.

11. But all this fondness of mine, is gradually turning to indifference; and I am pining and fading away as fast, as the frost beaten lotus flower, is shrunken and shrivelled for want of its sap and juice.

12. Being now indifferent to the pleasure of my enjoyment of all things, I come to seek the felicity of my nirvána-extinction; and stand in need of your advice for my salvation.

13. Otherwise it is better for them to die away than live in this world, who are unsuccessful in desires and ever restless and perplexed in their minds; and such as are buffeting and borne by the waves of deadly troubles.

14. He my husband being desirous of obtaining his nirvána liberation, is now intent both by day and night upon the subduing of his mind by the light of his reason, as a prince is roused to conquer his foe in company with his princess.

15. Now sir, please to dispel both his as well as mine ignorance, by your reasonable advice, which may revive our remembrance of the soul (which may destroy our faith in the body).

16. Because my lord sitting solely upon the meditation of the soul, without the company or any thought about me; has created in me an indifference and distaste to all worldly things in toto.

17. I am now set free from the influence of worldly desires, and have girt myself fast with the amulet of aeronautic expedition, for journeying through the regions of air. (This amulet is called the khechari mudra).

18. I have acquired the power of locomotion amidst the air, by means of this amulet of mine; and it is by virtue of this power, that I am enabled to associate with the siddha spirits, and to converse with you.

32819. Having girt myself with this charm, I have acquired such potency, that though remaining in my dwelling house on earth, which is the basis and centre of all the worlds, I can see all its past and future events (by means of my intuition and yoga meditation).

20. Having then beheld within my mind, all and everything relating to this world; I have come out to survey the outward world, and seen as far as the gigantic polar mountain (which has perpetual light and darkness on either side of it).

21. Before this, O sage, neither I nor my husband, had ever any desire of seeing anything beyond our own habitation. (i.e. Or the internal world contained within the world).

22. My husband being solely employed in meditating on the meanings (doctrines) of the vedas; has no desire whatever, to know anything relating the past or unpassed (i.e. the present and future) time.

23. It is for this reason (of unacquaintance with the world), that my lord has not been able to succeed to any station in life; and it is today only, that both of us are desirous to be blest with the best state of humanity (the knowledge of the Deity).

24. We therefore beseech you, O venerable sir, to grant our request, as it is never in the nature of noble persons to refuse the prayer of their suppliants.

25. I who have been wandering in the etherial regions, among hosts of the perfected spirits of siddhas; do not find any one except yourself, O honourable sir, who may put fire to the thick gloom of ignorance as a conflagration.

26. And as it is the nature of good people to do good to others, even without the knowledge of any cause of pity in their suppliants; so should you, O venerable sir, do to your suppliant one without refusing her suit.

Vasishtha said:—I then seated as I was, in my imaginary seat in the sky, asked the lady who was also sitting like myself in the visionary air: saying:—

2. Tell me, O gentle lady, how could an embodied being as yourself, abide in the inside of a block of stone; how could you move about within that imporous substance, and what was the cause of your abode therein.

3. The Nymph replied:—Wonder not, O sage, at this kind of our habitation, which is as habitable to us, and inhabited by other creatures, as the open and spacious world which you inhabit.

4. There are the snakes and reptiles, living in and moving about the bowels of the earth; and there are huge rocks deeply rooted in the subterranean cell; the waters are running within the bosom of the ground, with as much freedom as the winds are flying all about the open air.

5. The oceans are flowing with the fulness of their waters, and the finny tribe moving slowly beneath and above their surface; and there are infinite numbers of living creatures, that are incessantly born and dying away in them.

6. It is in the cavity of the mundane stone, that the waters are gliding below, as the winds are flying above; here the celestials are moving and roving in the air, and the earth and the planetary bodies, revolving with their unmoving mountains and other immovables.

7. There are also the gods, demigods and human beings, moving in their respective circles, within the womb of this 330stone; and it is from the beginning of creation, that the waters of rivers are running as those of the oceans.

8. Again it is from the beginning of creation, that the sun has been darting his beams from above; and strewing them like lotuses on the lake like land, while the dark clouds of heaven are hovering over them like a swarm of black bees, fluttering upon those blooming blossoms.

9. The moon spreads her light like sandal paste on all sides, and effaces thereby the darkness, which overspreads the bosom of night, and covers the face of the evening star.

10. The sun light is the lamp of his light in heavenly mansion, and scatters its rays on all the ten sides of the skies, by means of their conductor of air. (It is believed that the circumambient air is the medium, through which the pencils of solar light pass in all directions).

11. The wheel of the starry frame, is continually revolving in the air by the will of God, like a threshing mill turning about its central axle by means of a string.

12. This rotatory circle of celestial bodies, about its axis of the pole, kills all things under its two valves of heaven and earth, as the wheel of fate grinds them to dust. (So says Kabir the saint of Julpa caste: “Every one is ground to dust, under the two disks of earth and sky, as under the jaws of death”).

13. The surface of the earth is full of hills and mountains, and the bosom of the sea is filled by rocks and islands; the upper sky contains the celestial abodes, and the demons occupy the lower regions below the ground.

14. The orbit of this earth, resembles the ear-ring of the goddess of the three worlds; and the verdant orb of this planet, is as the pendant gem of the ringlet, continually with the fluctuations of its people.

15. Here all creatures are impelled by their desires to their mental and bodily activities, as if moved to and fro by the flying winds, and are thus led to repeated births and deaths (from which they have no respite).

16. The silent sage sits in his sedate meditation, as the sky is unmoved with its capacity of containing all things within 331itself; but the earth is shaken and wasted by the dashing waves, and the fire is put down by its blazing flame, and every thing is moved about as monkey by the wind of its desires.

17. All the living beings abounding in the earth and water, and those flying in the air, as well as such as live in the hills and on trees; together with the gods and giants, are alike doomed to death and regeneration, as the ephemeral insects, worms and flies.

18. Time—the greatest slaughterer, destroys the gods, giants, gandharvas and all, with its many arms of ages and yugas, and of years, months, days and nights, as a herdsman kills his cattle, which he has reared up himself. (Time feeds upon what it has fed himself).

19. All these rise and fall in the eventful ocean of time, and having leapt and jumped and danced awhile, sink in the abyss of the fathomless whirl of death, from which none can rise again.

20. All sorts of beings living in the fourteen spheres of the world, are carried away as dust and ashes by the gust of death, to the hollow womb of air, where they disappear as empty clouds in the autumnal sky.

21. The high heaven which is ever clad in the clean and clear attire of the atmosphere, and wears the frame work of the stars as a cap or crown on its head, holds the two lights of the sun and moon in its either hand, and shows us the works of gods in the skies. (Heaven is the book of God, before thee set &c. Milton).

22. It remains unmoved for ever, and never changes its sides composed of the four quarters of heaven, notwithstanding vicissitudes of the sky, the rushing of the winds, the tremor of the earth, the roaring of the clouds and the intense heat of the sun (All which it bears as patiently as the fixed trees and stones on earth).

23. And all things continue in their destined course, whether they that are conscious or those which are unconscious of these changes in nature; such are the appearance of meteors and 332portents in the sky, the roaring of clouds, the eclipses of the planets, and the trembling of the earth below.

24. The submarine fire sucks up the over flowing waters, of the seven great basins or oceans on earth; in the same manner as the all-destroying time, devours the creatures in all the different worlds.

25. All things are continually going on in their course, in the manner of the continued motion of the (sadágati) of the current air: Namely; all earth born worms moving on and returning into the bowels of the earth; the birds of the air are moving in and flying on all sides of the sky; the fishes are swimming and skimming all about the waters, the beasts returning to their caverns in earth and the hills, and such is the case with the inhabitants of all the continents and islands lying in the womb of this world.

The Nymph continued:—If you, O sage, have any doubt in any part of my narration; then please to walk with me and see that mansion, and you will observe there many more wonders than what I have related.

2. Vasishtha said:—Upon this I said “well” and went on travelling with her in our aerial journey; as the fragrance of flowers flies with the winds, to aerial nothing in which they are both lost for ever.

3. As I passed far and afar, in the regions of air; I met with multitudes of etherial beings, and came to the sight of their celestial abodes.

4. Passing over the regions traversed by the celestials, in the upper and higher sphere of heaven; I arrived at blank and blanched sky, beyond the height and above the summit of the polar mountain.

5. I then passed amidst this etiolated vault and came out at last of it, as the fair moon appears under the white canopy of heaven; and beheld above me the bright belt of zodiac, containing the seven-fold golden spheres of the seven planets. Note. The Hindu astronomy does not reckon the earth as one of the moving planets.

6. As I was looking at that belt of the zodiac, I found it as a crystaline marble, and burning with fire. I could not discern any of the worlds that it encompassed (they being all put to shade by the zodiacal light).

7. I then asked my lovely companion, to tell me where were the created worlds, together with the gods and planetary bodies and stars, and the seven spheres of heaven.

8. Where were the oceans and the sky, with all its different 334sides (of the compass); where were the high and heavy bodies of clouds, the starry heaven, and the ascension and descension of the rolling planets.

9. Where are now, said I, the rows of the lofty mountain peaks, and the marks of the seas upon the earth; where are the circles and clusters of the islands, and where are the sunny shores and dry and parched grounds of deserts.

10. There is no reckoning of time here, nor any account of actions of men; nor is there any delusive appearance of a created world or anything whatever, in this endless and empty vacuum.

11. There is no name of the different races of beings, as the Gods, demigods, Vidyádharas, Gandharvas and other races of mankind; there is no mention of a sage or prince, or of aught that is good or evil, or of a heaven or hell, or day and night and their divisions into watches, hours &c.

12. There is no calculation of the divisions of time (in this extramundane space), nor any knowing of merit or demerit (in this uninhabited place); it is free from the hostility of the gods and demigods and the feelings of love and enmity (between man and man).

13. Whilst I had been prating in this manner in my amazement, that excellent lady who was my cicerone in this maze, spake to me and said, with her eyeballs rolling as a couple of fluttering black bees.

14. The Nymph said:—I neither see any thing here, in its former state; but find everything presenting a picturesque form in this crystal stone, as it does in its image appearing in a mirror.

15. I see the figures of all things in this, by reason of my preconceived ideas eternally engraven herein, while the want of your preconceptions of them, is the cause of your over sight or blindness of the same.

16. Moreover it is your habitual conversation, regarding the unity or duality of the sole entity; and forgetfulness of our pure spiritual and intellectual bodies, that you were blind to the sight of the reality, and I had a dim glimpse of it.

33517. I have by my long habit of thinking, learnt to look upon this world in the light of an etherial plant (which is nothing); I never view it as you do to be a reality, but as a dim reflection of the ideal reality.

18. The world that appeared before so conspicuous to my sight, I find it now appearing as indistinct to me as a shadow of the same cast upon a glass.

19. It is owing to our prejudice in favour of the false doctrine of old, regarding the personality of the body; that we have missed the ease of our reliance in the spiritual body, and thus fallen in the deep darkness of delusion.

20. Whatever we are habituated to think in our internal minds, the same grows forth and takes a deep root in the heart, under the moistening influence of the intellectual soul; and mind becomes of the nature, as the force of early habit forms the youth.

21. There is nothing which is likely to be effected, either by the precepts of the best sástras, or the dictates of right reason, unless they are made effectual by constant application and practice of them. (Theoretical knowledge is useless without practice).

22. Your erroneous speech regarding the nihility of the world in this empty space, proceeded only from your constant habit of thinking the reality of the false world, which was about to mislead me also. Be now wise that you have overcome your previous prejudice, and known the present truth.

23. Know, O sage, that it is your habitual thinking of a thing as such, that makes it appear so to you; just as a mechanic master’s art is by his constant practice of the same under the direction of its professor.

24. The erroneous conceptions of this thing and that, and of the existence of the material world, and the reality of one’s egoism and personality; are all obviated by culture of spiritual knowledge, and by force of the constant habit of viewing all things in their spiritual light.

25. I am but a weak and young disciple to thee, and yet 336see the stony world too well, which thou with thy all knowingness dost not perceive; and this is because of my habit of thinking it otherwise than thou art practiced to do.

26. See the effect of practice, which makes a learned man of a dunce (by his habitude to study); and reduces a stone to dust (by continued pounding). Look at the force of the inert arrow, to hit at the distant mark (by impulsion of the practiced archer).

27. In this manner the gloom of our ignorance, and the malady of false knowledge, are both of them dispelled by right reasoning and deep thinking, both of which are the effect of habit.

28. It is habit that produces a zest, in the tests of particular articles of food, as some have a relish for what is sour and pungent, while there are others that luxuriate in what is sweet and savoury. (Tastes differ).

29. A stranger becomes friendly, by his continuance in one’s company; and so is a friend alienated, by his living in an alien and distant land.

30. Our spiritual body, which is perfectly pure, aerial and full of intelligence, is converted to and mistaken for the gross material body as soul, by our constantly thinking of our corporeality.

31. The impression of your being a material body, will fly away as a bird flies off in the air, no sooner you come to know yourself to be a spiritual and intellectual soul. But it is the habit of thinking yourself as such, that makes you really so.

32. All our meritorious acts are destroyed, by a slight act of demerit; and our prosperity flies away at the approach of adversity; but there is nothing which can remove our habit from us. (Habit being our second nature).

33. All difficult matters are facilitated by practice, and enemies are conciliated into friendship, and even poison is made as delectable as honey by virtue of habit.

34. He is reckoned as too mean and vile a person, who does not accustom himself to practice, whatever is good and proper 337for him; he never acquires his object, but becomes as useless as a barren woman in the family.

35. Whatever is desirable and good for one, is to be gained with assiduity all along one’s life time, just as one’s life, which is his greatest good in the world, is to be preserved with care, until the approach of death.

36. Whoso neglects to practice any act or art, which is conducive to his welfare, is prone to his ruin and to the torments of hell.

37. They who are inclined to the meditation of the spiritual soul, cross over easily over the billowy rivulet of this world, although they may be attached to it in their outward and bodily practices. (The knowledge of the immortal soul, is the healing balm of the turmoils of mortal life).

38. Practice is the light, that leads one in the path of his desired object; just as the light of the lamp shows the place, where the lost pot or cloth lies in the room. (So application to the esoteric, enlightens the mysterious truths of nature).

39. The arbour of assuetude fructifies in its time, as the kalpa tree yields all the fruits of our desire; and as the hoarded capital of the rich, is attended with great profit and interest.

40. Habitual inquiry into spiritual truth, serves as the sunlight to enlighten the nature of the soul (unto us); or it lies hid in our very body as any part of it in the darkness of the sunless night. (The inward soul is invisible to exoteric view).

41. All animal beings are in need of certain provisions, for the supportance of their lives; and all these they have to obtain by their continued search, and never without it. Therefore the force of habit prevails in all places as the powerful sunshine.

42. All the fourteen kinds of living beings, have to live by the habit of their respective activities; and it is impossible for any one to get its desired object, without its unfeigned activity.

43. It is the repetition of same action, which takes the name of habit, and which is called one’s personal effort or exertion; and it is not possible for any body to do anything without any effort.

33844. Constant habit of action, joined with bodily and mental energy, is the only means of accomplishing anything and not otherwise.

45. There is nothing which is impossible to the power of habit, which is as powerful as the strong sun-beams which give growth to everything on earth. It is habitual energy only that gives prosperity and undauntedness to the brave, on earth and water and mountains, and in forests and deserts.

The Nymph continued:—Now as it is the habit of long practice, combined with the understanding and cogitation of a subject, that makes one proficient in it; so these being applied to the meditation of the spiritual and pure soul, will cause the material world to vanish in the stone (we have been talking of).

2. Vasishtha said:—After the celestial nymph had spoken in this manner, I retired to the cavern of a rock, where I sat in my posture of Padmásana (or legs folded upon one another); and became engaged in my samádhi-devotion (or abstract and abstruse meditation).

3. Having given up all thoughts of corporeal bodies, and continued to think only of the intellectual soul, according to the holy dictate of the nymph as said before.

4. I then had the sight of an intellectual void in me, which present a clear and fair prospect before me, resembling the clearness of the vacuous vault of heaven in autumnal season.

5. It was at last by my intense application, to the meditation of the true One (or the God in spirit), that my erroneous view of the phenomenals, entirely subsided within me (or disappeared from my mind).

6. The intellectual sphere of my mind, was filled by a transcendent light; which knew no rising or setting, but was always shining with an uniform radiance.

7. As I was looking into and through the light, that shone in me, I could find neither the sky nor that great stone, which I sought to find.

8. I then found the clear and thick blaze of my spiritual 340light, to ravish my outward sight; as it had enrapt my inward vision.

9. As a man sees in his dream a huge stone in his house, so I beheld the vast vacuum as a crystaline globe, situate in the clear atmosphere of the intellect. (The stone is the mundane egg or sphere of the universe).

10. A dreaming man, may think himself as another person; but after he is awakened from his sleep, he comes to know himself. (So we dream ourselves as this and that, but upon waking to reason, we find ourselves as none of these, but the pure spirit).

11. Those who dream themselves headless beings in their sleep, and remain so in this world; they can be of no good or use to themselves, though they have a little knowledge afterwards.

12. The man that is drowned in utter ignorance, comes to his right understanding in course of time; and comes to know at the end, that there is no real entity, except the essence of God.

13. This when I beheld the solid and transparent light, which appeared as crystal stone lying in the vacuity of Brahma; I could observe no material thing as the earth and water, or aught whatever in connection with it.

14. The pure and spiritual form, in which all things were presented at their first creation; they bear the same forms still, in our ideas of them.

15. All these bodies of created beings, are but forms of Brahma; being considered in their primordial and spiritual and natural natures; and it is the mind which gives them the imaginary shapes of materiality, in its fabricated dominion of the visible world.

16. It is the spiritual form, which is the true essence of all things; and all that is visible to us or perceptible to the senses, is mere fabrication of the originally inventive mind.

17. The prime creation was in the abstract, or an abstract idea of it, and imperceptible to the senses (because the original 341prototype of the world, was co-eternal with the divine mind, and existent with it from before the formation of the perceptive senses of beings; but it was perceptible to the mind in the form of the noumenal, which was converted to the concrete and phenomenal by the ignorant).

18. The yogi like the knowing minds, sees all things in the abstract and in a general view; but the ignorant that are deprived of the power of abstraction and generalization, fall into the errors of concrete particulars and deceptive sensibles.

19. All sensation is but a temporary perception, and presents a wrong impression in the mind; know all sensible perceptions to be false and deluding, but their concepts in the mind of yogi are the true realities. (Falsity of perception and reality of noumena according to Berkeley).

20. O, the wonder of taking the sensibles for the invisible verities! when it is ascertained that the concepts, which are beyond the senses, are the true realities that come under our cognizance.

21. It is the subtile form (or idea) of a thing, that appears at first before the mind; which is afterwards represented in various false shapes before us; and this is true of all material things in the world. (As the general and abstract idea of heat, which is at first imprinted in the mind, is manifested unto us at last in the concrete and particular forms of the sun and fire and all other hot bodies). (This passage supports the doctrine of the eternity of general ideas innate in us, against Locke’s denial of inborn ideas).

22. Whatever there has not been before, has never been in being afterwards; as the variety of the jewelery of gold, is naught but gold itself; so the pristine subtile ideas, cannot have any gross material form. (All which is but shadow and fallacy).

23. O, the great ignorance of men! that takes the error for truth, and considers the falsehood as true; and there is no way for the living soul to discern the true and false, except by right reasoning.

24. The material body cannot be maintained by correct reason, 342but the immaterial essence of it is indestructible, both in this world as also in the next.

25. The error of materiality in the incorporeal or spiritual body, which is presided over by the intellect—chit; is as the fallacy of a vast sea, in the shining sands of a sandy desert.

26. The consciousness of materiality, which one has in his spiritual and intellectual form; is as his supposition of a human body in the peak of a mountain, when it is viewed by his naked eye sight.

27. The erroneous supposition of materiality, in the spiritual entity of our being; is as the error of our taking the shells on the sea shore for silver, the sunshines on sands for water, and another moon in the mist.

28. O the wondrous efficacy or error! that represents the unreal as real and the vice-versa; and O the great power of delusion! which springs from the unreasonableness of living beings.

29. The yogi finds the spiritual force and mental activity, to be the two immaterial causes of all action and motion, that actuate everything in both the physical and intellectual worlds.

30. Therefore the yogi relies in his internal perception only, by rejecting those of his external senses; while the common sort are seen to run giddy, with drinking the vapours of the mirage of senses.

31. That which is commonly called pleasure or pain, is but a fleeting feeling in the mind of men, and is of a short duration; it is that unfeigned and lasting peace of mind, which has neither its rise or fall, that is called true happiness (and is felt by yogis only).

32. Infer the hyper-sensible from the sensibles, and see the true source of thy sensations manifest in thy presence. (Know the Lord as the pattern of thy perceptions).

33. Reject the sight of this triple world (composed of the upper, lower and midway spheres), which thy perception presents 343to thy imagination; because there can be nothing more foolish than taking a delusion for truth.

34. All these bodies and beings bear only, their immaterial forms of mere ideas; and it is the goblin of delusion alone, that causes us to suppose their materiality.

35. Whatever is not produced or thought of in the mind, can not present its figure to our sight also; and that which is no reality of itself, cannot be the cause of any else. (Nothing comes from a nullity).

36. When the sensibles are null and unreal, what other thing is there that may be real; and how can anything be said as real, whose reality is by the unreal and delusive senses.

37. The sensibles being proved as unreal, there can be no reality in their perceptions and thoughts also; it is impossible for a spider to maintain its web before a storm, which blows away an elephant.

38. So likewise the ocular evidence being proved as false, there is no proof of there being any object of vision any where. There is but One invariable entity in all nature, whose solidity depends upon the consolidation of the divine intellect, as of the sea salt on the solidified sea water.

39. As a dreamer dreams of a high hill in his house, and in its ideal form, which is unknown to and unseen to others sleeping with him in the same house; so we thought two of that stone we have been talking of erewhile, and which is no other than the intellect.

40. It is this intellectual soul, which exhibits a great many ideal phenomena within itself, and all of which are as unsubstantial as empty air; such as:—this is a hill, and this is the sky; this is the world, and these are myself and thyself.

41. Men of enlightened souls only, can perceive these phenomena of the intellect in themselves and not the unenlightened soul; just as the hearer of a lecture understands its purport, and not one who dozes upon the reading of a sermon.

42. All these erroneous sights of the world, appear to be 344true to the unenlightened person; just as the unmoving trees and mountains, seem to be dancing to inebriated man.

43. The yogi beholds one irrepressible form of God (Siva) in all places, and manifest before him in the form of his intellect; but the ignorant are beguiled by their false guides, to place their reliance in the objects of senses, notwithstanding their frail nature.

Vasishtha added:—The world is without any figure or substance, though it presents the appearance of such; it is seen in the light of the pure and imperishable essence of God, by the keen sight of transcendental philosophy.

2. It is that quintessence which exhibits in itself the rare show of the cosmorama, and the figures of hills and rivers are seen in it as pictures in a panoroma, or as spectres appearing in the empty air.

3. The nymph then entered that cosmical block by the resistless efforts, and I also penetrated in it after her, with my curiosity (to know the contents thereof).

4. After that indefatiguable lady had made her way into the cosmos of Brahmá, she took her seat before a Bráhmana, and shone supremely bright in his presence.

5. She introduced me to him and said: This is my husband and supporter and with whom I have made my betrothal a long time in my mind.

6. He is now an old man, and I too have attained my old age; and as he has differed his marriage with me till now, I have become utterly indifferent about it at present.

7. He also has grown averse to his marriage at present, and is desirous of attaining to that supreme state, of which there is no view nor viewer, and which is yet no airy vacuity also.

8. The world is now approaching to its dissolution, and he has been sitting in his meditation, in as silent a mood as a stone and as immovable as a rock (in his yoga hypnotism).

9. Therefore do thou please, O lord of saints, to awaken both himself and me also, and enlighten and confirm us in 346the way of supreme felicity, until the end of this creation and the re-creation of a new one.

10. Having said so to me, she waked her husband and spoke to him saying; Here my lord, is the chief of saints, that has come today to our abode.

11. This sage is the progeny of Brahmá in another apartment of this worldly dome, and deserves to be honoured with the honors worthy of a guest, according to the proper rite of hospitality.

12. Arise and receive the great sage with offering of his honorarium, and the water (for washing his feet); because great persons are deserving of the greatest regards and respects, that one can offer unto them.

13. Being thus addressed by her, the holy devotee awoke from his hypnotism, and his consciousness rose in himself, as a whirlpool rises above the sea.

14. The courteous sage opened his eyes slowly, as flowers open their petals in the vernal season after the autumn is over.

15. His returning senses slowly displayed the power of his limbs, as the returning moisture of plants in spring, puts their new sprouts and branches to shoot forth anew.

16. Immediately there assembled about him the gods, and demigods, siddhas and Gandharvas also from all sides; just as the assemblage of swans and cranes, flock to the limpid lake, blooming with the full-blown lotuses in it.

17. He looked upon all that were standing before him, together with myself and the fair lady (that had brought me thither); and then in the sweet tone of the parnava hymn, he addressed me as the second Brahmá himself.

18. The Bráhmana said:—I welcome thee, O sage, to this place, that dost view the world as in a globe placed in the palm of thy hand; and resemblest the great ocean in the vast extents of thy knowledge. (Lit:—the ambrosial waters of knowledge).

19. You have come a great way, to this far distant place; and as you must have been tired with your long journey, please to sit yourself in this seat.

34720. As he said these words, I saluted him saying, I hail thee my lord; and then sat on the jewelled seat, he pointed out to me.

21. And then he was lauded by the assembled gods, and holy spirits standing before him, and received their pújá presents and adorations, according to the rules and rites of courtesy.

22. Then as the praises and prayers of the assembled host, was all at an end in a moment; the venerable bráhmana was accosted and bespoken unto me in the following manner.

23. How is it, O venerable sir, that this nymph has recourse to me, and tells me to enlighten you both with true knowledge, when you are acquainted whatever is past, and all that is to take place in future.

24. You sir, are lord of all, and fully acquainted with all knowledge; what is it then that this silly woman wants to learn from me, and this is what I want to learn from you.

25. Why was she produced by you to become your spouse, and was never taken to spousal by your indifference towards her.

26. The Bráhmana replied:—Hear me saint to tell you, how it came to be so with us; because it is right and fit to acquaint everything in full to the wise and good.

27. There is an unborn and imperishable entity from all eternity, and I am but a spark of that ever sparkling and effulgent intellect.

28. I am of the form of empty air or vacuum, and situated for ever in the supreme spirit; and am called the self-born in all the worlds, that were to be created afterwards.

29. But in reality I am never born, nor do I ever see or do anything in reality; but remain as the vacuous intellect in the intellectual vacuity of the selfsame entity.

30. These our addresses to one another in the first and second persons (lit. as I, thou, mine, thine &c.), are no other than as the sounds of the waves of the same sea dashing against each other.

31. I who was of this nature (of a clear wave in the sea of 348eternity), became disturbed in time by feeling some desire rising in me, and seeing that maid amidst the blaze of my intellect.

32. I thought her as myself, though she appears as another person to you and others; and though she is manifest before you, yet lies as hidden in me as my veryself.

33. And I find myself as that imperishable entity, which abides in me as I abide in the supreme soul; I find my soul to be imperishable in its nature, and to be delighted in itself as if it were the lord of all.

34. Though I was thus absorbed in meditation, yet the reminiscence of my former state (as the creative energy of God or Brahmá); produced in me the desire of reproduction, and yonder is the incarnate divinity presiding over my will.

35. She is the presiding divinity over my will, that is standing here manifest before you; she is neither my wife nor have I betrothed her as such.

36. It is from the desire of her heart, that she deems herself the spouse of Brahmá; and it is for that reason that she has undergone troubles, before she got rid of her desires.

The Bráhmana related:—Now as the world is approaching to its end, and I am going to take my rest in the formless void of the intellect (after dissolution of the material world); it is for this reason that this divinity of worldly desires, is drowned in deep sorrow.

2. And as I am about to forsake her forever, it is for this very reason, O sage, that she is so very sorry and sick at her heart.

3. Being myself of an aerial form, when I become one with the supreme spirit (after my leaving the mental sphere); then there takes place the great dissolution of the world with the end of all my desire.

4. Hence she with deep sorrow pursues my way, for who is there so senseless, that does not follow after the giver of her being.

5. Now the time is come for the termination of the Kaliyuga, and of the rotation of the four ages; and the dissolution of all living beings, Manus, Indras, and the Gods, is near at hand.

6. Today is the end of the kalpa and great kalpa age, and this day puts an end to my energy and will, and makes me mix with the eternal and infinite vacuity.

7. It is now that this personification of my desire, is about to breathe her last; just as the lake of lotuses being dried, the breath of lotus flowers also is lost in the air.

8. The quiet soul like the calm ocean, is always at a state of rest; unless it is agitated by its fickle desires, as the sea is troubled by its fluctuating waves.

9. The embodied being (which is confined in the prisonhouse 350of the human body), has naturally a desire to know the soul, and to <be> freed from its dungeon.

10. Thus this lady being fraught with spiritual knowledge, and long practiced in yoga meditation; has seen the world you inhabit, and the four different states of its inhabitants. (The gloss explains the four states to mean the four different pursuits of men expressed by Dharma, Artha, Káma, Moksha).

11. She traversing through the regions of air, has come to the sight of the aforesaid etherial stone above the polar mountain, which is our celestial abode and the pattern of your world.

12. Both that world of yours and this abode of ours, rest on a great mountain, which bears upon it many other worlds (invisible to the naked eye).

13. We also do not see them with our discriminating eye sight, of discerning them separately from one another; but we behold them all commingled in one, in our abstract view of yoga meditation (i.e. The sight of particulars is lost in their abstract meditation).

14. There are numberless worlds of creations, in earth, water and air and in everything under the sky, as if they are compressed or carved in the body of a huge block of stone.

15. What you call the world is a mere fallacy, and resembles your vision of a fairy city in dream; it is a false name applied to an object, existing nowhere beyond the intellect (and in the imagination of the mind).

16. They who have come to know the world, as no other than an airy vision of the mind, are verily called as wise men, and not liable to fall into error.

17. There others who by their application to and practice of yoga contemplation, come to attain their desired object, as this lady has succeeded to gain your company (for her edification).

18. Thus doth the illusory power of the intellect, display these material worlds before us; and thus doth the everlasting Divine omnipotence manifest itself (in all these various forms).

19. There is no action nor any creation, that is ever produced from anything or ever reduced to nothing; but all things 351and actions are the spontaneous growth of the intellect only; together with our ideas of space and time.

20. Know the ideas of time and space, of substance and action, as well as of the minds and its faculties, are the lasting figures and marks on the stone of the intellect, and are ever salient in it, without their setting or being shaded at anytime.

21. This intellect is the very stone (we have been talking of), and is either at rest or rolling on as roller or wheel; the worlds appertain to it as its appurtenances, and accompany it as motion doth the wind.

22. The soul being replete with its full knowledge of all things, is considered as the solid world itself; and though it is infinite in time and space, yet it is thought as limited, owing to its appearance in the form of the bounded and embodied mind.

23. The unbounded intellect appears as bounded, by its limited knowledge; and although it is formless, yet it appears in the form of the mind, representing the worlds in it.

24. As the mind views itself in the form of aerial city in its dream, so doth it find itself in the form of this stone, with the worlds marked upon it in the daytime. (The world like the dream, is a transformation or representation of the mind itself).

25. There is no rolling of the orbs in this world, nor the running of streams herein, there is no object subsisting in reality any where; but they are all mere representations of the mind in empty air.

26. As there are no kolpa and great kalpa ages in eternity, nor the substantiality of anything in the vacuity of our consciousness; and as there is no difference of the waves and bubbles from the waters of the sea (So there is no difference of the empty thoughts from the vacuous mind; whence they take their rise).

27. The worlds appearing to be in esse, or existent in the mind and before the eyes; are in reality utterly inexistent in the intellect, which spreads alike as the all pervading and empty vacuum every where. And as all empty space in every place is alike and same with the infinite vacuity; so the forms 352of things appearing to the limited understanding, are all lost in the unlimited intellect.

28. Now Vasishtha, go to your place in your own world; and have your peace and bliss in your own seat of samádhi-devotion. Consign your aerial worlds to empty air, while I myself to the supreme Brahma do repair.

Vasishtha added:—So saying, Brahmá—the personified Brahman, sat in his posture of devotion—padmásana, and resumed his intense meditation of the samádhi meditation; and so did his celestial companions also.

2. He fixed his mind on the pause santa, which is placed at the end of half syllable m—the final letter of the holy mantra of omkara; and sat sedate with his steady attention (on the Divine), as an unmoved picture in painting.

3. His concupiscent consort-vásaná or desire, followed his example also; and sat reclined at the end of all her endless wishes, as an empty and formless vacuity. (The devotee must become a nullity, for his union with the unity).

4. When I saw them growing thin for want of their desires, I also reduced myself by means of my meditation, until I found myself as one with all pervading Intellect; in the form of endless vacuity (and perceived every thing that was going on everywhere).

5. I saw that as the desires of Brahmá were drying up in himself, so I found all nature to be fading away, with the contraction of the earth and ocean, together with the diminution of their hills and islands.

6. I saw the trees and plants and all sorts of vegetables, were fading away with the decay of their growth; and all creation seemed to come to its end in a short time.

7. It seemed that the stupendous body of Virát, which contained the whole universe, was sick in every part; and the great earth which was borne in his body, was now falling insensibly into decline and decay.

3548. She is now stricken with years, and grown dull and dry without her genial moisture, and is wasting away as a withered tree in the cold season (lit.—in the cold month of Christmas, when the icy breath of winter withers every green).

9. As the insensibility of our hearts, stupifies the members of our bodies; so did the anesthesia of One produce the obtuseness of all things in the world. (The creative power failing, all creation dwindles away).

10. The world was threatened by many a portent and ill omen on all sides, and men were hastening to hell-fire; and burning in the flame of their sins. (The end of Kali or sinful age, is the precursor to its final doom of the dooms-day).

11. The earth was a scene of oppression and famine, troubles, calamities and poverty, waited on mankind every where; and as women trespassed the bounds of decorum, so did men transgress the bounds of order and conduct.

12. The sun was obscured by mist and frost, resembling gusts of ashes and dust; and the people were greatly and equally afflicted by the excess of heat and cold, the two opposites which they knew not how to prevent. (i.e. All beings were tormented by the inclemencies of weather).

13. The Pamaras or Pariahs, were tormented by burning fires on one side, and floods and draughts of rain water on the other; while waging wars were devastating whole provinces altogether.

14. Tremendous portents were accompanied, with the falling mountains and cities all around; and loud uproars of the people rose around, for the destruction of their children and many good and great men under them. (i.e. under the falling rocks and edifices).

15. The land burst into deep ditches, where there was no water course before; and the peoples and rulers of men, indulged themselves in promiscuous marriages.

16. All men living as way-farers or peddlers, and all paths full of tailor shops; all women dealing in their hairs and head-dressess, and all rulers imposing head taxes on their people.

35517. All men living by hard labour, and the reyets living upon litigation only; women living in impiety and impurity, and the rulers of men addicted to drinking.

18. The earth was full of unrighteousness, and its people were misled by heretical doctrines and vicious sástras; all wicked men were wealthy and fortunate, and good people all in distress and misery.

19. The vile non-áryans, were the rulers of earth, and the respectables and learned men had fallen into disrepute and disregard; and the people all were guided by their evil passions of anger, avarice and animosity, envy, malice and the like.

20. All men were apostates from their religion, and inclined to the faith of others; the Bráhmanas were furious in their dehortation, and the vile borderers were persecutors of others. (i.e. they robbed themselves).

21. Robbers infested the cities and villages, and robbed the temples of gods and the houses of good people; and there were parasites, pampered with the dainties of others, but short lived and sickly with their gluttony.

22. All men indulging themselves in their idleness and luxury, and neglecting their rituals and duties; and all the quarters of the globe, presented a scene of dangers and difficulties, woe and grief.

23. Cities and villages were reduced to ashes, and the districts were laid waste on all sides; the sky appeared to be weeping with its vaporous clouds, and the air disturbed by its whirling tornadoes.

24. The land resounded with the loud crying and wailing of widows and unfortunate women, and they who remained at last, compelled to live by beggary.

25. The country was dry and anhydrous, and lying bare and barren in all parts; the seasons were unproductive of season-fruits and flowers; so every part of this earthly body of Brahmá, was out of order and painful to him.

26. There was a great dearth on earth, upon her approaching dissolution, and the body of Brahmá grew senseless, owing 356to the loss of the watery element, in all its canals of rivers and seas.

27. The spirit of Brahmá being disturbed, there occurred a disorder in the course of nature; and it brought on a transgression of good manners, as when the waters of rivers and seas overflowed their boundaries.

28. Then the furious and sounding surges begin to break down their bounds, and run mad upon the ground; and the floods overflow the land, and lay waste the woodlands.

29. There were whirlpools, whirling with hoarse noise, and turning about on every side, with tremendous violence; and huge surges rose as high, as to wash the face of the heavy clouds in the sky.

30. The mountain caverns, were resounding to the loud roars of huge clouds on high, and heavy showers of rain fell in torrents from the sky, and overflooded the mountain tops afar and nigh.

31. Gigantic whales, were rolling along with the whirling waves of the ocean; and the bosom of the deep appeared as a deep forest, with the huge bodies of the whales floating upon the upheaving waves.

32. The mountain caves were strewn over with the bodies of marine animals, which were killed there by rapacious lions and tigers; and the sky glittered with marine gems, which were borne on high by the rising waters.

33. The dashing of the rising waves of the sea, against the falling showers of the sky; and the dashing of the uplifted whales with elephantine clouds on high, raised a loud uproar in the air.

34. The elephants floating on the diluvian waters, washed the faces of the luminaries, with the waters spouted out of their nozzles; and their justling against one another, hurled the hills aground. (Or they clashed on one another, as two hills dashed over against the other).

35. The sounding surges of the sea, dashed against the rocks on the shore, emitted a noise like the loud roar of elephants, contending in the caverns of mountains.

35736. The nether sea invaded the upper sky, and its turbulent waves drove the celestials from their abode; as an earthly potentate attacks another, and his triumphant host, dispossesses the inhabitants with loud outcry.

37. The overflowing waters covered the woods, both in the earth and air; and the overspreading waves filled the skies like the winged mountains of yore.

38. High sounding winds were breaking the breakers of the sea, and driving them ashore as fragments of mountains; while their splashing waters, dashed against the rocks on the shore, and washed the fossil shells on the coast.

39. Whirling whirlpools, were hurling the huge whales into them; and ingulphing the falling rocks in their fathomless depth.

40. Big water elephants or whales were carried with the torrents, and drowned in the depths of the caverns on the mountain tops; and these they attempted to break, with their hideous teeth or tusks.

41. The tortoise and crocodile hang suspended on the trees, and extended their full length and breadth thereon; and the vehicles of Yama and Indra (i.e. the buffalo and elephant), stood aghast with their erect ears.

42. They listened <to> the fragments of rocks, falling with hideous noise on the sea-shore; and beheld fishes with their broken fins, tossed up and down by the falling stones.

43. The forests shook no more in their dancing mood, and the waters on earth were all still and cold; but the marine waters were flaming with the submarine fire, emitting a dismal glare.

44. The sea elephants or whales being afraid of the extinction of marine fire, by the primeval waters (which were the seat of Náráyana); fell upon the waters on the mountain tops, and contended with the earthly and mountainous elephants.

45. The rocks carried away by the rapid current, appeared as dancing on the tops of the waves; and there was a loud concussion of the swimming and drowned rocks (mainákas), as they dashed against the mountains on land.

35846. Large mountains and woods, were now resorted to by men and wild animals; and the driving droves of wild elephant, were roaring as loud, as the high sounding trumpets at a distance.

47. The infernal regions were disturbed by the torrents of water, as by the infernal demons; and the elephants of the eight quarters, raised loud cries with their uplifted trunks and nozzles.

48. The nether world emitted a growling noise, from their mouths of infernal caverns; and the earth which is fastened to its polar axis, turned as a wheel upon its axle.

49. The over flowing waters of the ocean, broke their bounds with as much ease, as they tear asunder the marine plants; and the breathless skies resounded to the roaring of the clouds all around.

50. The sky was split into pieces, and fell down in fragments; and the regents of the skies fled afar with loud cries. And comets and meteors were hurled from heaven, in the forms of whirlpools.

51. There were fires and firebrands, seen to be burning on all sides of the skies, earth and heaven; and flaming and flashing as liquid gold and luminous gems, and as snakes with colour of vermilion.

52. My flaming and flying portents, with their burning crests and tails, were seen to be flashing all about, and flung by the hands of Brahmá, both in the heaven above and earth below.

53. All the great elementary bodies, were disturbed and put out of order; and the sun and moon and the regents of air and fire, with the gods of heaven and hell (name by Pavana and Agni, and Indra and Yama), were all in great confusion.

54. The gods seated even in the abode of Brahmá, were afraid of their impending fall; when they heard the gigantic trees of the forests falling headlong, with the tremendous crash of pata-pata noise.

35955. The mountains standing on the surface of the earth, were shaking and tottering on all sides; and a great earthquake shook the mountains of Kailása and Meru, to their very bottom and caverns and forests.

56. The ominous tornadoes at the end of the kalpa period, overthrew the mountains and cities and forests, and overwhelmed the earth and all in a general ruin and confusion.

Vasishtha continued:—Now the self-born Brahmá, having compressed his breath in his form of Virát (or the heart); the aerial or atmospheric air, which is borne on the wings of wind, lost its existence.

2. The atmospheric air, which is the very breath of Brahmá being thus compressed in his breast; what other air could there remain, to uphold the starry frame and the system of the universe.

3. The atmospheric air, being compressed with the vital breath of Brahmá; the perturbed creation (as described before), was about to come to its ultimate quietus.

4. The firmament being no more upheld by its support of the air, gave way to the fiery bodies of meteors, to fall down on earth, as starry flowers from the arbour of heaven.

5. The orbs of heaven, being unsupported by the intermediate air, were now falling on the ground; like the unfailing and impending fruits of our deserts, or the flying fates falling from above.

6. The gross desire or the crude will of Brahmá, being now at its end at the approach of dissolution; there was an utter stop, of the actions and motions of the siddhas, as that of the flame of fire before its extinction.

7. The world-destroying winds were winding in the air, like the thin and flying scraps of cotton; and then the siddhas fell down mute from heaven, after the loss of their strength and power of speech.

8. The great fabrics of human wishes, fell down with the cities of the Gods; and the peaks of mountain were hurled headlong, by shocks of tremendous earthquakes.

3619. Ráma rejoined:—Now sir, if the world is but a representation of the ideal in the mind of the great God Brahmá or Virát; then what is the difference of earth, heaven and hell to him (who encompasses the whole in his body or mind).

10. How can these worlds be said, to be the members of his body; or can it be thought, that the God resides in them with his stupendous form.

11. I well know that Brahmá is wilful spirit of God, and has no form of himself; and so do I take this world, for a formless representation of the will or idea in the Divine Mind. Please sir, explain this clearly unto me.

12. Vasishtha replied:—In the beginning this world was not in existence, nor inexistence either; because there was the eternal Intellect, which engrossed all infinity in itself, and the whole vacuity of space with its essence.

13. This vacuity of it (the subjective chit), is known as the objective chetya or thought; and the intellect without forsaking its form, becomes chetana or the power of intellection (or the mind) itself.

14. Know this intellection as the jíva or living soul, which being condensed (with feelings &c.) becomes the gross mind; but none of these essences or forms of existence, have any form whatever.

15. The vacuity of the intellect, remains as the pure vacuum in itself forever; and all this which appears as otherwise, is no other and nothing without the self-same soul.

16. The very soul assumes to it its egoism (or personality), and thinking itself as the mind, becomes sullied with its endless desires, in its vacuous form. (The pure soul is changed to the impure spirit or volitive mind).

17. Then this intellectual principle, thinks itself as the air, by its own volition; and by this false supposition of itself, it becomes of an aerial form in the open air.

18. Then it thinks of its future gross form, and immediately finds itself transformed to an aerial body, by its volition or sankalpa. (The will being master to the thought).

19. Though the soul, spirit and mind, are vacuous in their 362natures; yet they can assume aerial forms to themselves by their will, as the mind sees its imaginary cities; and so doth the Lord take upon Him any form it pleases.

20. And as the knowledge of our minds, is purely of an aerial nature, so the intelligence of the all-intelligent Lord is likewise of an intellectual kind; and he takes and forsakes any form as he supposes and pleases for himself.

21. As we advance to the knowledge of recondite truth, so we come to lose the perception of size and extension; and to know this extended world as a mere nullity, though it appears as a positive entity.

22. By knowledge of the real truth, we get rid of our desires, as it is by our knowledge of the unity and the absence of our egoism or personality, that we obtain our liberation. (i.e. The knowledge of our nothingness).

23. Such is He—the supreme One, and is Brahma the entity of the world. And know Virát, O Ráma, to be the body of Brahma, and the form of the visible world. (Brahma, Brahmá and Virát, are the triple hypostasis of the One and same God).

24. The desires or will, is of the form of empty vacuum, and the erroneous conceptions which rise in it; the same give birth to the world, which is thence called the mundane egg.

25. Know all this is non esse, and the forms you see, are but formation of your fancy; in reality there is nothing in esse; and tuism and egoism are no entities at any time.

26. How can the gross world be ever attached to the simple Intellect, which is of the nature of a void; how can a cause or secondary causality, be ever produced in or come out from a mere void?

27. Therefore all this production is false, and all that is seen a mere falsity; all this is a mere void and nothing, which erroneously taken for something.

28. It is the Intellect only which exhibits itself, in the forms of the world and its productions, in the same manner as the air begets its pulsations (in the form of winds), in the very calm air itself.

36329. The world is either as something or as nothing at all, and devoid of unity and duality; know the whole to lie in the empty vacuity of the Intellect, and is as void and transparent as the same.

30. I am extinct to all these endless particulars and distinctions, and whether you take them as real or unreal, and be with or without your egoism, it is nothing to me.

31. Be without any desire and quiet in your mind, remain silent and without fickleness in your conduct; do whatever you have to do, or avoid to do it without anxiety.

32. The eternal One, that is ever existent in our notion of Him, is manifest also in the phenomenal, which is no other than Himself. But our imperfect notion of God, has many things in it which are unknown to us and beyond our comprehension; and such are the phenomenals also, that are so palpable unto us. (We have the innate idea of God, but no knowledge of his inner or outer nature and attributes, which are displayed in all existence).

Ráma said:—Sir, you have said at length regarding our bondage and liberation, and our knowledge of the world as neither a reality nor an unreality also; and that it neither rises nor sets, but is always existent as at first and ever before.

2. I have well understood Sir, all your lectures on the subjects, and yet wish to know more of these, for my full satisfaction with the ambrosial drops of your speech.

3. Tell me sir, how there is no truth nor any untruth, either an erroneous view of the creation as a reality, or its view as a mere vacuum:

4. In such a case, I well understand what is the real truth; yet I want you to tell more of this, for my comprehension of the subject of creation.

5. Vasishtha replied:—All this world that is visible to us, with all its moving and unmoving creatures; and all things with all their varieties, occasioned by difference of country and climate.

6. All these are subject to destruction, at the great dissolution of the world; together with Brahmá, Indra, Upendra, Mahendra and the Rudras at the end.

7. Then there remains something alone, which is unborn and increate and without its beginning; and which is ever calm and quiet in its nature. To this no words can reach, and of which nothing can be known.

8. As the mountain is larger and more extended than a 365mustard seed, so is the sky much more than that; but the entity of vacuity is the greatest of all.

9. Again as the dusts of the earth, are smaller than the great mountain; so the stupendous universe, is a minute particle in comparison with the infinite entity of the vacuity of God.

10. After the long lapse of unmeasured time, in the unlimited space of eternity (i.e. at the end of a Kalpa age); and after the dissolution of all existence in the transcendent vacuum of the Divine Mind (lit., thinking soul).

11. At this time the great vacuous intellect, which is unlimited by space and time, and is quite tranquil by being devoid of all its desire and will; looks in itself by its reminiscence, the atomic world in aeriform state (as the soul ruminates over the past in its dream).

12. The intellect reconnoitres over this unreality within itself, as it were in its dream; and then it thinks on the sense of the word Brahma or enlargement, and beholds the dilation of these minutiae in their intellectual forms (i.e. the developed ideas).

13. It is the nature of the intellect to know the minute ideas, which are contained in its sensory; and because it continues to look upon them, it is called their looker. (i.e. The subjective principle of the objective thoughts).

14. (In order to clear how the intellect can be both the subjective and objective at once, it is said that:) As a man sees himself as dead in his dream, and the dead man sees his own death; so doth the intellect see the minute ideas in itself. (Hence it is not impossible for the contraries to subsist together).

15. Hence it is the nature of the intellect, to see its unity as a duality within itself; and to remain of its own nature, as both the subjective and objective by itself.

16. The intellect is of the nature of vacuum, and therefore formless in itself; and yet it beholds the minute ideas to rise as visibles before it, and thereby the subjective viewer becomes the duality of the objective view also.

36617. It then finds its minute self, springing out distinctly in its own conception; just as a seed is found to sprout forth in its germ. (This is the first step of the conception of personality of the universal spirit).

18. It has then the distinct view of space and time, and of substance and its attributes and actions before its sight; but as these are yet in their state of internal conceptions, they have as yet received no names for themselves.

19. Wherever the particle of the intellect shines (or that which is perceptible to it); is called the place (or object), and whenever it is perceived the same is termed as time, and the act of perception is styled the action.

20. Whatever is perceived (by the intellect), the same is said as the object; and the sight or seeing thereof by it, is the cause of its perception, just as the light of a luminary, is the cause of ocular vision.

21. Thus endless products of the intellect appear before it, as distinct from one another by their time, place, and action; and all these appearing as true, like the various colours of the skies in the sky.

22. The light of the intellect shines through different parts of the body, as the eye is the organ whereby it sees; and so the other organs of sense for its perception of other objects. (All these are called axas answering the sight of the eyes).

23. The intellectual particle, shining at first within itself, bears no distinct name except that of tanmátra or its inward perception; which is as insignificant a term as empty air.

24. But the shadow of the atomic intellect falling upon the empty air, becomes the solid body; which shoots forth into the five organs of sense, owing to its inquest into their five objects of form and the rest.

25. The intellectual principle, being then in need of retaining its sensations in the sensorium, becomes the mind and understanding (which is called the sixth or internal organ of sense).

26. Then the mind being actuated by its vanity, takes 367upon it the denomination of egoism, and is inclined to make imaginary divisions of space and time.

27. Thus the minute intellect comes to make distinctions of time, by giving them the different denomination of the present, past and future.

28. Again with regard to space, it denominates one place as upper and another as lower; and goes on giving different appellations of sides (or the points of compass), to one invariable space in nature.

29. It then comes to understand the meanings of words, and invent the terms signifying time and space, action and substance.

30. Thus the intellect bearing a vacuous form in the primordial vacuum, became the spiritual or lingadéha of its own accord, until it was diffused all over the world (which is thence called the mundane God).

31. Having long remained in that state as it thought, it took upon it the compleately concrete material form through which it was transfused.

32. Though formed originally of air in the original air, and was perfectly pure in its nature; yet being incorporated in the false corporeal form, it forgot its real nature; as the solar heat in conjunction with sand, is mistaken for water.

33. It then takes upon itself and of its own will, a form reaching to the skies; to which it applied to the sense of the word head to some part, and that of the word feet to another. (The highest heaven is the head and the earth the foot-stools of God).

34. It applied to itself the sense of the words breast, sides and to other parts, by adopting their figurative sense and rejecting the literal ones. (Virát is the human figure for the macrocosm of the universe).

35. By thinking constantly on the forms of things, as this is a cow and that is a horse &c., as also of their being bounded by space and time; it became conversant with the objects of different senses.

36836. The same intellectual particle, saw likewise the different parts of its body; which it termed its hands, feet &c., as its outward members; and the heart &c., as the inner members of the body.

37. In this manner is formed the body of Brahmá, as also those of Vishnu and the Rudras and other Gods; and so also the forms of men and worms are produced from their conception of the same.

38. But in fact there is nothing, that is really made or formed; for all things are now, as they have been ever before. All this is the original vacuum, and primeval intelligence; and all forms are the false formations of fancy.

39. Virát is the seed producing the plants of the three worlds, which are productive of many more, as one root produces many bulbs under it. Belief in the creation, puts a bolt to the door of salvation; and the appearance of the world, is as that of a light and fleeting cloud without any rain.

40. This Virát is the first male, rising unseen of his own will. He is the cause of all actions and acts.

41. He has no material body, no bone or flesh, nor is he capable of being grasped under the fist of anybody.

42. He is as quiet and silent, as the roaring sea and cloud, and the loud roar of lions and elephants, and the din of battle, is unheard by the sleeping man.

43. He remains neither as a reality, nor entirely as an unreality; but like the notion of a waking man, of a warrior seen to be fighting in his dream. (i.e. As the faint idea of an object seen in dream).

44. Although his huge body stretches to millions of miles, yet it is contained in an atom with all the worlds that lie hid in every pore of his body. (Meaning—the cosmos contained in a grain of the brain).

45. Though thousands of worlds and millions of mountains compose the great body of the unborn Virát, yet they are not enough to fill it altogether, as a large quantity of grain, is not sufficient to fill a winnowing basket.

36946. Though myriads of worlds are stretched in his body, yet they are but an atom in comparison with its infinity; and the Virát is represented to contain all in his body, yet it occupies no space or place, but resembles a baseless mountain in a dream.

47. He is called the self-born and Virát also, and though he is said to be the body and soul of the world, yet he is quite a void himself.

48. He is also named as Rudra and Sanatana, and Indra and Upendro also; he is likewise the wind, the cloud and the mountain in his person.

49. The minute particle of the Intellect, like a small spark of fire, inflates and spreads itself at first; and then by thinking its greatness, it takes the form of chitta or the thinking mind, which with its self-consciousness becomes the vast universe.

50. Then being conscious of its afflation, it becomes the wind in motion; and this is the aeriform body of Virát.

51. Then it becomes the vital breath, from the consciousness of its inspiration and expiration in the open air.

52. It then imagines of an igneous particle in its mind, as children fancy a ghost where there is none; and this assumes the forms of luminous bodies (of the sun, moon, and stars) in the sky.

53. The vital breath of respiration, are carried by turns through the respiratory organs into the heart; whence it is borne on the wings of air to sustain the world, which is the very heart of Virát.

54. This Virát is the first rudiment of all individual bodies in the world, and in their various capacities forever.

55. It is from this universal soul, that all individual bodies have their rise, and according to their sundry desires; and as these differ from one another in their outward shapes, so they are different also in their inward natures and inclinations.

56. As the seed of Virát sprang forth at first, in the nature and constitution of every individual being; it continues to do so in the same manner in the heart of every living, agreeably to the will of the same causal principle.

37057. The sun, moon and the winds, are as the bile, phlegm in the body of Brahmá; and the planets and stars, are as the circulating breath and drops of the spittle of phlegm of that deity.

58. The mountains are his bones, and the clouds his flesh; but we can never see his head and feet, nor his body and skin.

59. Know, O Ráma, this world to be the body of Virát, and an imaginary form by his imagination only. Hence the earth and heaven and all the contents, are but the shadow of his Intellectual vacuity.

Vasishtha continued:—Hear now more about the body of Virát, which he assumed to himself of his own will in that Kalpa epoch, together with the variety of its order and division, and its various customs and usages.

2. It is the transcendent vacuous sphere of the intellect, which makes the very body of Virát; it has no beginning, middle or end, and is as light as an aerial or imaginary form.

3. Brahmá who is without desire, beheld the imaginary mundane-egg appearing about him, in its aerial form (of a chimera).

4. Then Brahmá divided this imaginary world of his in twain. It was of a luminous form, from which he came out as a luminary, like a bird matured in its egg. (This is hence called Brahmánda or egg of Brahmá).

5. He beheld one half (or the upper hemisphere) of this egg, rising high in the upper sky; and saw the other half to constitute the lower world, and both of which he considered as parts of himself.

6. The upper part of Brahmá’s egg, is termed as the head of Virát; the lower part is styled his footstool, and the midway region is called his waist.

7. The midmost part of the two far separated portions, is of immense extent, and appearing as a blue and hollow vault all around us.

8. The heaven is the upper roof of this hollow, likening to the palate of the open mouth, and the stars which are studded in it, resemble the spots of blood in it. The breath of the mouth is as vital air, which supports all mortals and the immortal Gods.

3729. The ghosts, demons and ogres, are as worms in his body; and the cavities of spheres of the different worlds, are as the veins and arteries in his body.

10. The nether worlds below us, are the footstools of Virát; and the cavities under his knees, are as the pits of infernal regions.

11. The great basin of water in the midst of the earth, and surrounding the islands in the midst of them; is as the navel and its pit in the centre of the body of Virát.

12. The rivers with the purling waters in them, resemble the arteries of Virát with the purple blood running in them; and the Jam-bu-dvípa is as his lotiform heart, with the mount Meru as its pericarp.

13. The sides of his body, are as the sides of the sky; and the hills and rocks on earth, resemble the spleen and liver in the body of Virát; and the collection of cooling clouds in the sky, is like the thickening mass of fat in his body.

14. The sun and the moon are the two eyes of Virát, and the high heaven is his head and mouth; the moon is his marrow, and the mountains are the filth of his person.

15. The fire is the burning heat, and bile in his bowels; and the air is the breath of his nostrils (and so the other elements are humours of his body).

16. The forests of Kalpa trees and other woods, and the serpentine races of the infernal regions, are the hairs and tufts of hairs on his head and body. (All these are parts of the one undivided whole of Virát’s body).

17. The upper region of the solar world, forms the capt head of Virát’s body; and the zodiacal light in the concavity beyond the mundane system, is the crest on top of Virát’s head.

18. He is the universal Mind itself, has no individual mind of his own; and he being the sole enjoyer of all things, there is nothing in particular that forms the object of his enjoyment.

19. He is the sum of all the senses, therefore there is no sense beside himself; and the soul of Virát being fully sensible of every thing, it is a mere fiction to attribute to him the property of any organ of sense. (It is a mere figure of speech to say 373God hears and sees, when the omniscient soul knows all without the aid of the organs of seeing and hearing).

20. There is no difference of the property of an organ (as the hearing of the ear); and its possessor—the mind, in the person of Virát, who perceives by his mind all organic sensations, without the medium of their organs.

21. There is no difference in doings of Virát and those of the world; it is his will or thought alone which acts with many (or active) force (on the passive world), both in their transitive as well as in their causal forms.

22. All actions and events of the world, being said to be same with his, our lives and deaths in this world, are all conformable to his will. (This passage is explained in four different ways in the gloss).

23. It is by his living that the world lives, and so it dies away with his death; and just as it is the case, with the air and its motion, so it is with the world and Virát to act or subside together. (But Virát being the god of nature in general, he acts by general and not by partial laws, and is therefore neither affected by particular events nor ever directs any particular accident at any place or time). (Both of which are the one and the samething).

24. The world and Virát are both of the same essence, as that of air and its motion in the wind; that which is the world, the same is Virát; and what Virát is, the very same is the world also. (The same thing personified as another).

25. The world is both Brahmá as well as Virát, and both of which are its synonyms according to its successive stages; and are but forms of the will of the pure and vacuous intellect of God. (The will was at the beginning, Aham bahu syam; i.e. I will become many).

26. Ráma asked:—Be it so that Virát is the personified will of God, and of the form of vacuum; but how is it that he is considered as Brahma himself in his inner person?

27. Vasishtha replied:—As you consider yourself as Ráma and so situated in your person also; so Brahmá—the great father of all, is the wilful soul only in his person.

37428. The souls of holy men also, are full with Brahma in themselves; and their material bodies, are as mere images of them.

29. And as your living soul is capable, of fixing its residence in your body; so the self-willed soul of Brahma, is by far more able to reside in his body of the Brahmánda-Universe.

30. If it is possible for the plant, to reside in its seed, and for animal life to dwell in the body; it must likewise be much more possible for the spirit of Brahma, to dwell in a body of its own imagination.

31. Whether the Lord be in his consolidated form of the world, or in his subtile form of the mind, He is the same in his essence, though the one lies inside and the other outside of us, in his inward and outward appearance.

32. The holy hermit who is delighted in himself, and continues as mute as a log of wood and as quiet as a block of stone; remains with his knowledge of I and thou (i.e. of the subjective and objective as well as of the general and particular) fixed in the universal soul of Virát.

33. The holy and God knowing man, is passionless under all persecution, as an idol which they make with ligatures of straw and string; he remains as calm as the sea, after its howling waves are hushed; and though he may be engaged in a great many affairs in the world, yet he remains as calm and quiet in his mind, as a stone is unperturbed in its heart.

Vasishtha continued:—Then sitting in my meditation of Brahmá, I cast my eyes around, I came to the sight of the region before me.

2. It being then midday, I beheld a secondary sun behind me, appearing as a conflagration over a mountain (or a burning mountain), at the furthest border of that side.

3. I saw the sun in the sky as a ball of fire, and another in the water burning as the submarine fire; I beheld a burning sun in the south east corner, and another in the southern quarter.

4. Thus I saw four fiery suns on the four sides of heaven, and as many in the four corners of the sky also.

5. I was astonished to find so many suns all at once in all the sides of heaven; and their flame-fire which seemed to burn down their presiding divinities—the Agni, Váyu, Yama, Indra &c. (The twelve suns of Hindu Astronomy, are the so many solar mansions in the twelve signs of the zodiac, which encircle all the sides of the compass, together with the personified climates under the same).

6. As I was looking astonished at these unnatural appearances, in the heavens above; there appeared on a sudden a terrestrial sun before me, bursting out of the submarine regions below.

7. Eleven of these suns were as reflexions of the one sun, seen in a prismatic mirror; and they rose out of the three suns of Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva, in the vacuity of the different sides of heaven. (The gloss explains the eleven suns, as the eleven Rudra forms of Siva—the god of destruction amidst the Hindu Trinity).

3768. The same form of Rudra with its three eyes, shone forth in the forms of the twelve burning suns of heaven. (As Siva with the eleven Rudras, makes the number twelve, so doth the sun with the other eleven signs of the zodiac, make the same number).

9. In this manner the sun burnt down the world, as the flame of fire burns away dry wood of the forest; and the world was dried up of its moisture, as in the parching days of summer season.

10. The solar fire burnt away the woods, without any literal fire or flame; and the whole earth was as dry as dust by this fireless incendiarism.

11. My body became heated and my blood boiled as by the heat of a wild fire; and I left that place of torrid heat, and ascended to the remoter and higher regions of air.

12. I beheld the heavenly bodies hurling as tops, flung from the string held by a mighty hand; and I saw from my aerial seat, the rising of the blazing suns in heaven.

13. I beheld the twelve suns burning in the ten sides of it, and I saw also the extensive spheres of the stars, whirling with incredible velocity.

14. The waters of the seven oceans were boiling, with a gurgling noise; and burning meteors were falling over the cities in farthest worlds.

15. The flame flashed upon distant mountains, making them flare with vermeil hue, and splitting noise; and continued lightnings flashed upon the great edifices on every side, and put the canopy of heaven in a flame.

16. The falling buildings emitted a cracking and crackling noise all around, and the earth was covered with columns of dark smoke, as by the thickening clouds and mists.

17. The fumes rising as crystal columns, appeared as turrets and spires upon the towers on earth; and the loud noise of wailing beasts and men, raised a gurgling (gharghara) clangor all over the ground.

18. The falling of cities upon men and beasts, made a hideous noise and huge heaps of omnium gatherum on earth; 377and the falling stars from heaven, strewed the earth with fragments of gems and jewels.

19. All human habitations were in flames, with the bodies of men and beasts, burning in their respective homes and houses; and the noiseless skirts of villages and towns, were filled with the stink of dead and burning bodies.

20. The aquatic animals were stewed, under the tepid waters of the seas: and the cry of people within the city, was hushed by the howling of the ambient flames on all sides.

21. The elephants of the four quarters of heaven, fell down and rolled upon the burning ground, and uplifted the hills with their tusks (to shelter themselves from the falling fires); while the caverns of the mountains, were emitting gusts of smoke, from the subterranean fire.

22. The burning hamlets and habitations, were crushed and smashed under the falling stones and hills; while the mountain elephants yelled aloud, with their deadly groans and agonies.

23. Heated by sunheat, all living beings rushed to and splashed the hot waters of seas, and the mountainous vidyádharas fell down into the hollow bosom of mountains, bursting by their volcanic heat.

24. Some being tired with crying, and others resorting to their yoga meditation, remained quiet in some places; and the serpent races were left to roll on the burning cinders, both below as well as upon the earth.

25. The voracious marine beasts as sharks and whales; being baked in the drying channels, were driven to the whirlpools of the deep; and the poor fishes attempting to evade the smart fire, flew into the airs by thousands and thousands.

26. The burning flames, then clad as it were, in crimson apparel, rose high in the air; and there leaping as it were in dancing, caught the garments of the Apsaras in heaven.

27. The desolating Kalpa fire, being then wreathed with its flashing flames, began to dance about all around; with the loud 378sound of bursting bamboos and cracking trees, as it were with the beating of drums and timbrels.

28. The sportive fire danced about like a playful actor, in the ruinous stage of the world.

29. The fire ravaged through all lands and islands, and desolated all forests and forts; it filled all caves and caverns and the hollow vault of sky, till at last it over reached the tops of the ten sides of heaven.

30. It blazed in caverns and over cities and in all sides of dales, and the lands; it blazed over hills and mountain tops, and the sites of the siddhas and on the seas and oceans.

31. The flames flashing from the eyes of Siva, and the Rudras, boiled the waters of the lakes and rivers; and burned the bodies of devas and demons, and those of men and serpent races; and there arose a hoarse whispering sound from everywhere.

32. With column of flaming fire over their head, they began to play by throwing ashes upon one another; like the playful demon’s flirtation with dust and water.

33. Flames flashed forth from subterranean cells and caves on earth, and all things situated amidst them, were reddened by their light.

34. All the sides of heaven lost their azure hue, under the vermilion colour of the clouds which hung over them; and all things and the rubicund sky, lost their respective hues, and assumed the rosy tint of the red lotus (sthala padma—growing on land).

35. The world appeared to be covered under a crimson canopy, by the burning flames which overspread it all around, and resembled the evening sky under the parting glories of the setting sun.

36. Overspread with the flaming fires, the sky appeared as an overhanging garden of blooming Asoka flowers, or as a bed of the red kinsuka blossoms hanging aloft in the sky.

37. The earth appeared to be strewn over with red lotuses 379and the seas seemed to be sprinkled with red dye; in this manner the fire blazed in many forms, with its tails and crests of smoke.

38. The fire of conflagration, raged with its youthful vigour in the forest, where it glared in variegated colours, as a burning scenery is shown in a painting.

39. The vicissitudes of sunrise and sunset (i.e. the succession of day and night), now disappeared from the vindhyan mountain, owing to the continual burning of the woods upon its summit.

40. The flying fumes had the appearance of the blue sahya mountain in the south (Deccan), from their emitting the flashes of fire in the midst, like the lustre of the gems in that mountain.

41. The blue vault of the sky seemed as a cerulean lake, decorated with lotus like fire brands all over it, and the flames of fire flashed over the tops of the cloudy mountains in air (like the brisk dancing of actresses in a play).

42. Flames of fire with their smoky tails, resembling the train of a comet, danced about on the stage of the world, in the manner of dancing actresses, with the loosened and flouncing hair.

43. The burning fire burst the parched ground, and flung its sparkling particles all around, like the fried rice flying all about the frying pan in various colours.

44. Then the burning rocks and woods exhibited a golden hue on the breast of the earth, with their bursting and splitting noise (as if the earth was beating her breast at her impending destruction).

45. All lands were crushed together with the cry of their inhabitants, and all the seas dashed against one another, with foaming froths in their mouths.

46. The waves shone in their faces, with the reflexion of the shining sun upon them; they clashed against each other, as if they were clapping their hands; and dashed with such force 380against the land, that they beat and broke down the rocks on the sea shore.

47. The raging sea with his billowy arms, grasped the earth and stone, as foolish men do in their anger; and devoured them in his hollow cell with a gurgling noise, as fools swallow their false hopes with vain bawling.

48. The all destroying fire with a hoarse sound, melted down the rivers with their banks, and the regents of the sphere fell before the geysers.

49. The ten sides of the compass, were out of order and confounded together; and all the mountains were reduced to the form of liquid gold (fire), with their woods and abodes and caves and caverns.

50. By degrees the prodigious mountain Meru, was dissolved to snow by the heat of fire; and soon after the great mount of Himálaya, was melted down as lac-dye by the same fire.

51. All things were cold and pinched in themselves, as good people are thawed by the awe of the wicked; except the Malaya mountain, which yielded its fragrance even in that state (of its tribulation).

52. The noble minded man never forsakes his nobleness, though he is exposed to troubles; because the great never afflict another, though they are deprived of their own joy and happiness.

53. Burn the sandal wood, yet it will diffuse its fragrance to all living beings; because the intrinsic nature of a thing, is never lost or changed into another state.

54. Gold is never consumed nor disfigured, though it is burnt in the fire of a conflagration; thus there are two things, namely, aura and vacuum, that cannot be consumed by the all destroying fire.

55. Those bodies are above all praise, which do not perish at the perdition of all others; such as the vacuum is indestructible on account of its omnipresence, and gold is not subject to any loss owing to its purity.

38156. The property of goodness (sattwa) alone is true happiness, and neither rajas nor ostentation or passion. Then the fiery clouds moved aloft as a moving forest, ashed showers of vivid flame.

57. Mountainous clouds of fire, accompanied with flame and fume, poured liquid fire around; and burnt away all bodies, already dried up by heat and for want of water.

58. The dried leaves of trees ascending high in the air, were burnt away by the flame instead of the rain of heavy clouds. (Now the clouds were heavy with fire, and not with rain water).

59. The ambient and gorgeous flame passed by the Kailása mountain without touching it, knowing it to be the seat of the dread God Siva; in the manner of wise men, flying from the mud and mire of sin (knowing it to be attended with their perdition).

60. Then the God Rudra growing furious, at the final destruction of the world, darted the direful flame of his igneous eyes, and burnt down the sturdy arbours and robust rocks to ashes, with their stunning cracklings.

61. The hills at the foot of mountains, being crowned with flames of fire, moved forward as it were, to fight against the fire, with their stones and clubs of the clumps of trees.

62. The sky became as a bed of full blown lotuses, and creation became a mere name as that of Agastya, that departed and disappeared for ever from sight.

63. The suffering idiot on remembering into his mind the Kalpánta, took the world to be at an end; as the fire consumes all objects like the unreality of the world.

64. The falling thunderbolts pierced all bodies, and the glittering flames inflamed all the trees and plants; the winds too blew with fiery heat, and scorched the bodies of even the gods, and singed all things on every side.

65. Here the wild fire was raging loose among the arbours in the forest, and there were clouds of hot ashes flying in the air; and smoky mists emitting red hot embers and fiery sparks. 382Again darknesses were rising upward with faggots of fire falling from amidst them, and gusts of wind blew with speed and force, to befriend the destructive fire. (The air enkindled and spread the wild fire all about).

Vasishtha added:—Now blew the destroying winds, shaking the mountains by their force: and filling the seas with tremendous waves, and rending the skies with cyclonic storms.

2. The bounded seas broke their bounds, and ran to the boundless oceans by impulse of the wind, as poor people run to the rich, by compulsion of their driving poverty.

3. The earth being fried by the fire, went under the overflowing waters; and joined with the infernal regions, lying below the waters of the deep.

4. The heaven disappeared into nothing, and the whole creation vanished into the air. The worlds were reduced to vacuum, and the solar light dwindled to that of a star in the starry sphere.

5. There appeared from some cavity of the sky some hideous clouds, called Pushkara Avartaka and others in the forms of dreadful demons, and roaring with tremendous noise.

6. The noise was as loud as the bursting of the mundane-egg, and the hurling down of a large edifice; and as the dashing of the waves against one another, in a furiously raging sea.

7. The loud peal resounding through the air and water, and reechoing amidst the city towers, was deafening and stunning to the ear; and the swelling at the tops of mountains, filled the world with uproar.

8. The sound swelling as it were, in the conch-shell of the mundane-egg, was returned with triple clangor, from the vaults of heaven and sky and the infernal world.

3849. The supports of all the distant sides, were tottering at their base; and the waters of all the seas were mixed up together, as if to quench the thirst of the all devouring doomsday.

10. The doomsday advanced as the God Indra, mounted on the back of his elephantine clouds; which roared aloud amidst the waters, contained in the etherial ocean from the beginning.

11. The great doomsday was attended with a hubbub, as loud as that of the churning of the ocean before; or as that emitted by the revolving world or a hydrostatic engine of immense force.

12. Hearing this roaring of the clouds, amidst the surrounding fires, I became quite astonished at the stridor, and cast my eyes on all sides to see the clouds.

13. I saw no vestige of a cloud in any part of the heavens, except that of hearing their roar and finding flashes of firebrands flaming in the sky, with showers of thunderbolts falling from above. (i.e. It was a thunderstorm preceding the rain).

14. The flaming fire spread over millions of miles, on all the sides of earth and heaven; and burnt away every thing in them, to a horrid devastation.

15. After a little while I descried a spot at a great distance in the sky; and felt a cool air blowing to my body from it.

16. At this time I observed the Kalpa clouds, appearing and gathering at a great distance in the sky, where there was no relic of the living fire perceptible to the naked eye.

17. Then there breathed the Kalpa airs, from the watery corner or western side of the sky; which burnt at last in blasts, capable of blowing and bearing away the great mountains of Meru, Malaya and Himálaya.

18. These winds blew away the mountainous flames, and put to flight the burning cinders as birds to a distance; they bore down the spreading sparks, and drove away the fire from all sides.

38519. The clouds of fire disappeared from the air, as evening clouds; then clouds of ashes rose to the sky, and the atmosphere was cleared of every particle of fire.

20. The air was blowing with fire, and passing every where as the fire of incendiarism; and melted down the golden citadels on the flying mountain of Meru.

21. The mountains on earth being put on fire, their flames spread all about as the rays of the twelve suns.

22. The waters of oceans were boiling with rage, and the trees and leaves of the forest were burning with blaze.

23. The cities and celestials sitting on their happy seats, in the highest heaven of Brahmá, fell down below with all their inhabitants of women and young and old people, being burnt by the flames.

24. The Kalpánta or chaotic fire was mixed with the water, in the lake of Brahmá.

25. The strong winds uprooted the deep rooted mountains and rocks, and plunged them headlong into the fiery mire of the infernal regions.

26. The chaotic clouds advanced as a troop of sable camels, moving slowly in the azure sky with a grumbling noise.

27. They appeared from a corner of the sky, like a huge mountain flashing with lightnings of gorgeous flame; and fraught with the waters of the seven oceans.

28. These clouds were capable of rending the great vault of the world (heaven), with their loud uproar; and splitting all the sides of heaven, standing upon their solid snow white and impregnable walls.

29. The doomsday was as the raging ocean, and the planets were the rolling islands in the whirlpools of their orbits; the flitting lightnings likened its shifting aquatic animals, and the roaring of the clouds was as the howling of its waters.

30. The moon being devoured by Ráhu, and burnt away by the fiery comet, rose to heaven again and assumed the colder form of the cloud, to pour down more moisture than her nightly beams and dews.

38631. Lightning like golden sphere in the shape of frigidity of the sort of Himalaya, held all stupefied waters, woods and hills.

32. After the clouds had split the vault of heaven, by their harsh crackling and thunders; they dropped down the solid snows at first, which were then melted down in the form of liquid rain.

33. There was a jarring of dissonant sounds, that grated upon the ear, and proceeded from the bursting of woods by wild fire, and the stridor of thunder-claps in the rebellowing air; and the cracking and crackling and dashing and crashing of every thing in the shattering world.

34. There was a sharp and shrill noise, arising from the warring winds blowing in a hundred ways, and the drift of bleak cold showers of driving snows, covering the face of heaven.

35. The vault of heaven which is supported by the blue and sapphire-like pillars of the azure skies on all sides, shattered the earth and its props of the mountains, with big and heavy showers of diluvian rain.

36. The earth was bursting and splitting sound, by the blazing furnaces of fire on all sides; and the hearts of all living beings, were rent by the loud rattling of thunderbolts from heaven.

37. The rain that reigned long over the realm of the fiery earth, was now going upward in the form of smoke, which the burning earth heaved from her bosom, as her sighs towards heaven.

38. Now the vault of heaven, appeared to be overspread with a network, studded with red lotuses of the flying fires on high; while the dark showers had the appearance of swarms of black bees, and the rain drops likened their fluttering wings.

39. All the sides of heaven resounded to the mingled clatter of hailstone and fire brands, falling down simultaneously 387from the comingled clouds of dire and dreadful appearance; and the scene all around was as diresome to behold, as the mingled warfare of two dreadful forces, with dire arms and commingled bloodshed.

Vasishtha continued:—Hear now of the chaotic state of the world, which was brought on by conflict of the earth, air, water, and fire with one another; and how the three worlds were covered under the great diluvian waters.

2. The dark clouds flying in the air as pitchy ashes, overspread the world as a great ocean, with whirlpools of rolling smoke.

3. The dark blaze of the fire glimmered amidst the combustibles, and converted all of them to heaps of ashes, which flew and spread over all the world.

4. The swelling sound of the hissing showers rose as high, as they were blowing aloud the whistle of their victory.

5. There was the assemblage of all the five kinds of clouds and all of them pouring their waters in profusion upon the ground; these were the ashy clouds, the grey clouds, the kalpa clouds, and the misty and the showering clouds.

6. The howling breezes, tottered the foundations of the world; the high wind rose high to heaven, and filled all space; and bore the flames to burn down the regencies of the gods on every side.

7. The winds dived deep into the depths of water, and bore and dispersed their frigidity to all sides of the airs, which numbed the senses, and deafened the ears of all (by their coldness).

8. A loud hubbub filled the world, raised by the incessant fall of rain in columns from the vault of heaven; and by the roaring and growling of the kalpa fire.

9. The whole earth was filled with water as one ocean, by waterfalls from the clouds of heaven, resembling the torrents of Ganges and the currents of all rivers.

38910. The canopy of the kalpa or diluvian clouds, pierced by the shining sun-beams above them, appeared as the leafy tuft at the top of the nigrescent tamála tree, with clusters of lurid flowers, peeping through the sable leaves.

11. The all destroying tornado bore away the broken fragments, of trees and rocks, and the top of towers and castles aloft in the air; dashed them against the skycapt mountains, and broke them asunder to pieces.

12. The swift stars and planets, clashing with the rapid comets and meteors, struck sparks of fire and flame by their mutual concussion, which burned about as igneous whirlpools in the air.

13. The raging and rapid winds, raised the waves of seas, as high as mountains; which striking against the rocks on the sea-shore, broke and hurled them down with tremendous noise.

14. The deep dusty and showering clouds, joined with the wet kalpa clouds, cast into shade the bright light of the sun; and darkened the air under their sable shadows.

15. The seas over flowed their beds and banks, and bore down the broken fragments of the rocks under their bowels; and they became dreadful and dangerous by the falling and rolling down of the stones with their current.

16. The huge surges of the sea, bearing the fragments of the rocks in their bosom, were raised aloft by the cloud rending winds; and they dashed against and broke down the shores with deep and tremendous noise.

17. The diluvian cloud then broke asunder the vault of heaven, and split the bosom of the sky with its loud rattling; and then clapped together its oaklike hands, to see the universal ocean which it had made.

18. The earth, heaven and infernal regions, were rent to pieces, and tossed and loosed in the all devouring waters; and the whole nature was reduced to its original vacuity, as if the world was an unpeopled and vast desert.

19. Now the dead and half dead, the burnt and half burnt bodies, of gods and demigods, of Gandharvas and men beheld one 390another in the general ruin, and fled and fell upon each other with their lifted arms and weapons, with the velocity of the winds. (It is a dogma of spiritualism, that tribal and personal animosities &c., continue to the death bed and in after life, if there is no reconciliation made in the present state).

20. The diluvian winds, were flying as the funeral ashes from the piles; or as the arjuna humour of choler, drives a person up and down in the air like a column of ashes.

21. The heaps of stones that were collected in the air, fell forcibly on the ground, and broke down whatever they struck upon; just as the falling hailstones from heaven, clatter out of season, and shatter every thing wherever they fall.

22. The rustling breezes howling in the caverns of mountains, resounded with a rumbling noise from the fall of the mansions of the regents of every side.

23. The winds growled with harsh sounds, resembling the jarring noise of demons; and these blowing amidst the woods, appeared to be passing through the windows.

24. The cities and towns burning with the demoniac fire, and the mountains and abodes of the gods, flaming with solar gleams, and their sparks in the air, flying like swarms of gnats.

25. The sea was roaring with its whirling rain waters on the surface, and boiling with the submarine fire below; and destroying alike both the big mountains below, as also the abodes of the gods above.

26. The conflict of the waters and rocks, demolished the cities of the rulers of earth on all sides; and hurled down the abodes of the deities and demons, and of the siddhas and gandharvas also.

27. The stones and all solid substances were pounded to powder, and the fire-brands were reduced to ashes: when the flying winds blew them as dust all about.

28. The hurling down of the abodes of gods and demons, and the dashing together of their walls emitted a noise as that of the crashing of clouds, or gingling of metallic things in mutual contact.

39129. The sky was filled with peoples and edifices, falling from the seven regions of heaven; and the gods themselves were whirling in air, as anything fallen in a whirlpool in the sea.

30. All things whether burnt or unburnt, were swimming up and down in the etherial ocean, as the winds toss about the dry leaves of trees in the air.

31. The air was filled with the jarring and gingling sounds, rising from the fallen edifices of various metals and minerals in all worlds.

32. Then the smoky and ashy clouds all flew upward, while the heavy watery clouds lowered upon the earth; again the swelling billows were rising high upon the water, and the hills and all other substances were sinking below.

33. The whirlpools were wheeling against one another, with gurgling noise, and the old ocean was rolling on with gigantic mountains, floating upon it like groups of leaves and shrubs.

34. The good deities were wailing aloud, and the weary animals were moving on slowly; the comets and other portents were flying in the air, and the aspect of the universe, was dreadful and diresome to behold.

35. The sky was full of dead and half dead bodies, borne by the breezes into its bosom; and it presented a grey and dingy appearance, as that of the dry and discoloured foliage of trees (in the fading autumn).

36. The world was full of water, falling in profuse showers from the mountain peaks; and hundreds of streams flowed down by the sides of mountains, and were borne all about by the breeze.

37. The fire now ceased to rage with its hundred flames, and the swelling sea now run over its boundary hills; and over flowed its banks.

38. Mass of gramineous plant mixed with mud and mire, appeared as large island; and intellect in the far distant vacuity, appeared as lighting over a forest.

39. The rains closing extinguished the fire, but the rising 392fume and smoke filled the air and hid the heaven, so that the existence of the prior world and the former creation was altogether forgotten from remembrance.

40. Then there rose the loud cry of the extinction of creation, and there remained only the One being, who is exempt from creation and destruction (i.e. who is increate and imperishable).

41. Now the winds abated also, that had been incessantly struggling to upset the world; and continually filling the universe with their particles, as with an unceasing supply of grains.

42. The bodies of comets clashing against one another, were reduced to sparks of fire resembling the dust of gold; and these extinguishing at last to ashes, filled the vault of heaven with powdered dust.

43. The orb of the earth being shattered to pieces, with all its contents of islands &c., was rolling in large masses together with the fragments of the infernal worlds.

44. Now the seven regions of heaven and those of the infernal worlds, being mixed up in one mass with the shattered mass of the earth and its mountains, filled up the universal space with the chaotic waters and diluvian winds.

45. Then the universal ocean, was swollen with the waters of all its tributary seas and rivers; and there was a loud uproar of the rolling waters, resembling the clamour of the enraged madman.

46. The rain fell at first in the form of fountains and cascades, and then it assumed the shape of falling columns or water spouts; at last it took the figure of a palm tree, and then it poured down its showers in torrents.

47. Then it ran as the current of a river, and flooded and overflowed on all sides; and the raining clouds made the surface of the earth one extended sheet of water.

48. The flamefire was seen to subside at last, just as some very great danger in human life, is averted by observance of the precautions given in the sástras, and advice of the wise.

39349. At last the vast vault of the mundane world, became as desolate of all its contents and submerged in water; as a goodly bel fruit loses its substance by being tossed about in playful mood from the hands of boys.

Vasishtha continued:—The rain storm and falling hails and snows, shattered the surface of the earth to parts and parcels; and the violence of the waters was increasing, like the oppression of kings in Kali or last days of the world.

2. The rain water falling upon the stream of the etherial Ganges, make it run in a thousand streamlets, flowing with huge torrents, higher than the mountains of Meru and Mandara.

3. Here the waves rose to the path of the sun, and there the waters sank down and lay dull in the mountain caves; and then the dull element made the universal ocean, as when a fool is made the soveran lord of earth.

4. The great mountains were hurled down as straws, in the deep and broad whirlpools of water; and the tops of the huge surges, reached to the far distant sphere of the sun.

5. The great mountains of Meru and Mandara of Vindhya, Sahya and Kailása, dived and moved in as fishes and sea monsters; the melted earth set as its soil, and large snakes floated thereon like stalks of plant with their lotus like hoods.

6. The half burnt woods and floating plants, were as its moss and bushes, and the wet ashes of the burnt world, were as the dirty mud underneath the waters.

7. The twelve suns shone forth, as so many fullblown lotuses, in the large lake of the sky; and the huge and heavy cloud of Puskara, with its dark showers of rain, seemed as the blue lotus bed, filled with the sable leaves.

8. The raging clouds roared aloud from the sides of mountains, like the foaming waves of the ocean; and the sun and 395moon rolled like two pieces of sapphires over cities and towns (being darkened by the clouds).

9. The gods and giants and people at large, were blown up and borne into the air; till at last they flew up from their lightness and fell into the disc of the sun. (i.e. From their want of gravity on earth, they were attracted to the sun—the centre of gravity of the solar system).

10. The clouds rained in torrents with loud clattering noise, and their currents carried down the floating rocks, as if they were mere bubbles of water, into the distant sea.

11. The deluging clouds were rolling in the air, after pouring their water in floods on earth; as if they were in search after other clouds, with their open mouths and eyes (as if to see whether there remained any raining cloud still).

12. The rushing tornado filled the air with uproar, and with one gust of wind, blasted the boundary mountain from its bottom into the air. (So were the mountainous clouds, flung by the hands of Titans to the skies).

13. The furious winds collected the waters of the deep to the height of mountains; which ran with a great gurgling noise all about, in order to deluge the earth under them.

14. The world was torn to pieces by the clashing of bodies, driven together by the tempestuous winds; which scattered and drove millions of beings pell-mell, and over against one another.

15. The hills floated on the waves as straws, and dashing against the disc of the sun, broke it into pieces as by the pelting of stones.

16. The great void of the universe, spread as it were, the great net of waters in its ample space, and caught in them the great hills, resembling the big eels caught in fishing nets.

17. The big animal bodies that were rising or plunging in the deep, either as living or dead described the eddies made by whirlpools and whales on the surface of the waters (i.e. the one sinking downwards, and the other rising upward).

18. Those that have been yet alive, were floating about the tops of the sinking mountains, which resembled the floating 396froths of the sea; while the gods were fluttering as gnats and flies over them.

19. The spacious firmament on high, filled with innumerable rain drops, shining as bubbles of water in the air; appeared as the thousand eyes of Indra, looking on the rains below.

20. Indra the god of heaven, with his body of the autumnal sky, and his eyes of the bubbling raindrops; was looking on the floating clouds in the midway skies, flowing as the currents of rivers on high.

21. The Pushkara and Avartaka clouds with their world overflowing floods; met and joined together in mutual embrace, as two winged mountains flying in air, and clashing against one another.

22. These clouds being at last satisfied with their devouring the world, under their all swallowing waters; were now roaring loudly and flying lightly in the air, as if they were dancing with their uplifted hilly arms.

23. The clouds were pouring forth their floods of water above, and the mountain tops were flaming in the midway sky; and the huge snakes that had supported the earth, were now diving deep into the mud of the infernal regions (owing to the destruction of the earth).

24. The incessant showers filled the three regions, like the triple stream of Ganges running in three directions; they drowned the highest mountains, whose tops floated as froths in the universal ocean.

25. The floating mountains struck against the sphere of heaven, and broke it into fragments; when the fairies of heaven, floated as pretty lotuses on the surface of waters.

26. The universe was reduced to an universal ocean, which roared with a tremendous noise; and the three worlds being split to pieces, were borne away into the waters of the endless deep.

27. There remained no one to save another, nor any one that was not swept away by the flood; for who is there that 397can save us, when the all devouring time grasps us in his clutches.

28. There remained neither the sky nor the horizon, there was no upside nor downward in the infinite space; there was no creation nor a creature any where, but all were submerged under one infinite sheet of water.

Vasishtha resumed:—Seeing the end of all I still retained my seat in infinite vacuity; and my eyes were detained by the sight of a glorious light, shining as the morning rays of the rising luminary of the day.

2. While I was looking at that light, I beheld the great Brahmá sitting as a statue carved in stone, intent upon his meditation of supreme One, and beset by his transcendent glory all about him.

3. I saw there a multitude of gods, sages and holy personages, with Vrihaspati and Sukra—the preceptors of gods and demigods, together with the regent deities of wealth and death.

4. There were likewise the regent divinities of water, fire and the other deities also; so were there companies of rishis and siddhas and sádhyas, gandharvas and others.

5. All these were as figures in painting, and all sitting in their meditative mood; they all sat in their lotiform posture, and appeared as lifeless and immovable bodies.

6. Then the twelve ádityas or suns (of the twelve signs), met at the same centre (with the same object in their view); and they sat in the same lotiform posture (of devotion, as the other deities).

7. Then awhile after, I beheld the lotus born Brahmá; as if I came to see the object of my dream before me after my waking.

8. I then lost the sight of the deities, assembled in the Brahma-loka or in the world of Brahmá, as when great minded men, lose the sight of the most prominent objects of their desire 399from their minds. Nor did I perceive the aerial city of my dream before me, upon my waking (from the trance of my illusion).

9. Then the whole creation, which is but the ectype of the mind of Brahmá; appeared as void as an empty desert to me; and as the earth turning to a barrenwaste upon the ruin of its cities.

10. The gods and sages, the angels and all other beings, were no where to be seen any more; but were all blended in and with the same void every where.

11. I then seated in my etherial seat, came to know by my percipience, that all of them have become extinct (lit. obtained their nirvána extinction, like Brahmá in Brahma himself).

12. It is with the extinction of their desires, that they have become extinct also; as the sleeping dreamers come to themselves after they are awakened from their illusive vision. (Coming to one’s self Swasiarúpa one’s own nature or essence, means in vedánta, the holy and pure nature of the human soul, as an emanation or image of the divine).

13. The body is an aerial nothing, appearing as a substantial something, from our desire (or imagination of it only), and disappearing with the privation of our fancy for it, like a dream vanishing from the sight of a waking man.

14. The aerial body appears as real as any other image in our dream; and there remains nothing of it, upon our coming to their knowledge of its unreal nature, and the vanity of our desires.

15. We have no consciousness also, of either our spiritual or corporeal bodies, when we are fixed in our samádhi or intense meditation in the state of our waking (from sleep).

16. The notion of a thing seen in our dream, is given here as an instance (to prove the unreality of our idea of the body); because it is well known to boys and every body, and adduced to us both in the srutis and smritis tradition (that the objects of sight, are as false as those of dreams).

17. Whoever denies the falsity of the notions he has in his 400dream, and goes on to support the reality of these as well as other visible sights; must be a great impostor; and such a one deserves to be shunned, for who can wake the waking sleeper.

18. What is the cause of the corporeal body? Not the dream; since the bodies seen in a dream, are invisible (to the naked eye); and this being true it follows, that there is no solid body in the next world (as it is expected by means of sacrifices and pious acts).

19. Should there be other bodies after the loss of the present ones (by death); then there would be no need of repeated creation (of corporeal bodies by Brahmá); if the pristine bodies were to continue for ever.

20. Anything having a form and figure and its parts and members, is of course perishable in its nature; and the position (of Jaimini), that there was another kind of world before, is likewise untenable (since there could be nothing at any time, without its definite form and parts).

21. If you say (in the manner of the chárvákas), that the world was never destroyed; and that the understanding is produced of itself in the body, in the same manner as the spirit is generated in the fermented liquor.

22. This position of yours is inconsistent with the doctrines, of the puránas and histories as well as those of the vedas, smritis and other sástras, which invariably maintain destructibility of material things.

23. Should you, O intelligent Ráma, deny with the chárvákas the indefeasibility of these sástras; say what faith can be relied on those heretical teachings, which are as false as the offspring of a barren woman.

24. These heretical doctrines are not favoured by the wise, owing to their pernicious tendencies; there are many discrepancies in them, as you shall have it, from the few that I am going to point out to you.

25. If you say the human spirit to liken the spirit of liquors, (which is generated in and destroyed with the liquor); then tell 401me what makes the destroyed or departed spirit of a deceased person, who is dead in a foreign country, revisit his friends at home in the shape and form of a fiend (pisácha).

26. To this it is answered, that the apparition which thus appears to view is a false appearance only; granting it as such, why not own our appearances to be equally false also?

27. It being so, how can you believe the bodies, that the departed souls of men are said in the sástras, to assume in the next world, to be true also? (Any more than their being mere apparitions only).

28. There is no truth in the proof of a ghost (pisácha), as there is in that of the spirit in liquor; hence if the supposition of the former is untrue, what faith is there in future body in the next world?

29. If the existence of spirits be granted, from the common belief of mankind in them; then why should not the doctrine of a future state of the dead, be received as true upon the testimony of the sástras?

30. If the prepossession of a person’s being possessed on a sudden by an evil spirit, be any ground of his reliance in it, why then should he not rest his belief in his future state, wherein he is confirmed by the dogmas of the sástras?

31. Whatever a man thinks or knows in himself, he supposes the same as true at all times; and whether his persuasion be right or wrong, he knows it correct to the best of his belief.

32. A man knowing well, that the dead are to live again in another world, relies himself fully upon that hope; and does not care to know, whether he shall have a real body there or not.

33. Therefore it is the nature of men, to be prepossessed with the idea of their future existence; and next their growing desire for having certain forms of bodies for themselves, leads them to the error of seeing several shapes before them.

40234. It is then the abstaining from this desire, that removes the maladies of our errors of the looker, looking and the look (i.e. of the subjective and the objective); while the retaining of this desire leads us, to the viewing of this apparition of the world ever before us.

35. So it was the feeling of desire at first, which led the supreme spirit of Brahmá to the creation of the world; but its abandonment causes our nirvána-release, while its retention leads us to the error of the world.

36. This desire sprang at first in the Divine mind of Brahmá, and not in the immutable spirit of Brahma; and I feel this desire rising now in me, for seeing the true and supreme Brahma in all and every where.

37. All these knowledge that you derive here from, is said to form what is called the nirvána-extinction by the wise; and that which is not learnt herein, is said to constitute the bondage of the world.

38. This is the true knowledge to see God every where, it is self-evident in our inmost soul, and does not shine without it; (for all without is error and ignorance—avidyá).

39. The self-consciousness of our liberation—muktásmi, is what really makes us so; but the knowledge that we are bound to this earth—baddhásmi, is the source of all our woe, which require great pains to be removed.

40. The awakening of our consciousness of the world, is the cause of our being enslaved to it; and its hybernation in the trance of samádhi, is our highest felicity. By being awake to the concerns of the world, you only find the unreal appearing as real to you (for every thing here, is but deception and delusion).

41. Lying dormant in holy trance, without the torpidity of insensibility, is termed our moksha or spiritual liberation; while our wakefulness to the outer world, is said to be the state of our bondage to it.

42. Now let your nirvána be devoid of all desire, and from trouble, care and fear; let it be a clear and continuous revery 403without any gap or cessation, without the scruples of unity and duality; and be of the form of spacious firmament, ever calm and clear and undisturbed in itself.

Vasishtha continued:—Afterwards the celestials that were present in the heaven of Brahmá, vanished away and became invisible, as a lamp with its weakened (i.e. burnt out), wick or thread.

2. Now the twelve suns, having disappeared in the body of Brahmá; their burning beams burnt away the heaven of Brahmá, as they had burnt down the earth and other bodies.

3. Having consumed the seat and abode of Brahmá, they fell into the meditation of the supreme Brahma, and became extinct in him like Brahmá, as when a lamp is extinguished for the want of its oil.

4. Then the waters of the universal ocean, invaded the celestial city of Brahmá, and over flooded its surface, as the shade of night fills the face of the earth darkness.

5. Now the whole world was filled by water, from the highest seat of Brahmá, to the lowest pit of hell; and became as full with that liquid, as a grape is swollen with its juice, when it is perfectly ripe (i.e. cold and darkness filled the place, where there was no heat or light).

6. The waving waters rising as mountain tops, plied with the flying birds of air; and washed the seats and feet of the gods hovering over them. They touched the kalpa or diluvian clouds, which deluged over them.

7. In the meantime I beheld from my aerial seat, something of a dreadful appearance in the midst of the skies, which horrified me altogether.

8. It was of the form of deep and dark chaos, and embraced the whole space of the sky in its grasp and appeared as the 405accumulation of the gloom of night, from the beginning to the end of creation.

9. This dark form radiated the bright beams; of millions of morning suns, and was as resplendent as three suns together; and as the flashing of many steady lightnings at once.

10. Its eyes were dazzling and its countenance flashed with the blaze of a burning furnace, it had five faces and three eyes; its hands were ten in number, and each of them held a trident of immense size.

11. It appeared manifest before me, with its outstretched body in the air; and stood transfixed in the sky, as a huge black cloud extending all over the atmosphere.

12. It remained in the visible horizon, below and out of the universal ocean of waters; and yet the position and features of the hands and feet and other members of its body, were but indistinctly marked in the sky.

13. The breath of its nostrils, agitated the waters of the universal ocean; as the arms of Govinda or Hari churned of yore the milky ocean (after the great deluge).

14. Then there arose from the diluvian waters, a male being called afterwards the first male (Ádipurusha). He was the personification of the collective ego, and the causeless cause of all.

15. He rose out of the ocean, as a huge mountainous rock; and then flew into the air with his big flapping wings, extending over and enclosing the whole space of infinite vacuity.

16. I knew him from a distance, and by the indications of his triple eyes and trident, to be the Lord Rudra himself; and then bowed down to him, as the great God of all.

17. Ráma asked:—Why sir, was the Lord Rudra of that form, why was he of such gigantic form and of so dark a complexion? Why had He ten arms and hands, and why had He the five faces and mouths upon his body?

18. Why had he his three eyes, and so fierce a form; was he absolute in himself or delegated by any other? What was his errand and his act; and was it a mere shadow or having a shadow (helpmate) of its substance (i.e. máya or Illusion)?

40619. Vasishtha replied:—This being is named Rudra or fierce, for his being the aggregate of Egoism. He is full of his self-pride, and the form in which I beheld him, was that of a clear vacuity.

20. This lord was of the form of vacuum, and of the hue and resplendence of vacuity; and it is on account of his being the essence of the vacuous intellect, that he is represented as the cerulean sky.

21. Being the soul of all beings, and being present in all places, he is represented in his gigantic form; as his five faces, serve as representations of his five internal organs of sense.

22. The external organs of sense (together with their objects and faculties), and the five members of his body, are represented by his ten arms on both sides of his body.

23. This Lord of creation together with all living bodies and mankind, are resorbed in the supreme One at the final dissolution of the world; and when he is let out to pass from the unity, he then appears in this form.

24. He is but a part of the eternal soul, and has no visible body or form of his own; but is thought of in the said form by the erroneous conception of men.

25. Having proceeded from the vacuum of the Intellect, the lord Rudra is posited in the material vacuum or firmament; and has his residence also in the bodies of living beings in the form of air (or vital breath).

26. The aeriform Rudra comes to be exhausted in course of time, and then by forsaking the animated bodies, he returns to resort to the reservoir of eternal rest and peace.

27. The three qualities, the three times, the three intellectual faculties of the mind, understanding and egoism; the three vedas, and the three letters of the sacred syllable of om, are the three eyes of Rudra.

28. The trident of Rudra is the symbol of his sceptre, and it is held in his hand, to imply his having the dominion of the three worlds under his hold.

29. He is represented as having a living body and soul, to 407indicate his being the personality and personification of the egoism of all living beings, and that there is no living body apart from himself.

30. It is his nature and business, to provide to all living creatures, according to their wants and desert; and is therefore manifested in the form of Siva, which is the divine Intellect in the form of air.

31. This Lord having at last destroyed and devoured the whole creation, rests himself in perfect peace, and becomes of the form of pure air and of the blue firmament.

32. After affecting the destruction of the world, he drinks down and drenches up the universal ocean; and then being quite satiate, he rests himself in perfect peace and inaction.

33. Afterwards as I beheld him drawing the waters of the ocean into his nostrils, by the force of his breath.

34. I saw a flame of fire flashing out from his mouth, and thought it to be the flash of the latent fire of the water, which was drawn in him, by the breath of his nostrils.

35. Rudra the personified Ego, remains in the form of latent heat in the submarine fire; and continues to suck up the waters of the ocean, until the end of a kalpa epoch.

36. The waters then enter into the infernal regions, as snakes enter in the holes beneath the ground; and the diluvian winds entered into his mouth, in the form of the five vital airs; just as the winds of heaven have their recess in hollow sky.

37. The lord Rudra then goes on to swallow and suck up the marine waters, as the bright sunlight swallows the gloom of the dark fortnight.

38. There appears at last a calm and quiet vacuity as the azure sky, and resembling the wide ocean filled with flying dust and smoke; and devoid of any being or created thing, and stretching from the Empyrean of God to the lowest abyss or infernum.

39. I described amidst it four different spheres of empty void, bearing no vestige of anything moving or stirring in them. Listen to me, O son of Raghu, and you will hear what they were.

40840. One of these lay in the midst of the air, and was sustained in it without any prop or support like the particles of fragrance floating in the air. This was Rudra of the form of the azure sky.

41. The second was lying afar, and appeared as the concavity of the sky over this earth; it was a part of the mundane system and below the seven spheres of the infernal regions.

42. The third was a region above the mundane sphere, and was invisible to the naked eye, owing to its great distance beyond the azure sky.

43. Then there was the surface of the earth, with its lower hemisphere of the watery regions; it was traversed by the great mountain which was the seat of gods—the Himálayas; and beset by islands, and sea-girt sands and shores.

44. There is another sphere, lying at the furthest distance from the other circles of the world; and comprises the infinite space of vacuum, which extends unlimited like the unbounded and transparent spirit of God.

45. This was the remotest sphere of heavens, that could be observed by me; and there was nothing else observable on any side, beside and beyond the limits of these four spheres or circles.

46. Ráma interrogated, saying:—I ask you to tell me, O venerable sir; whether there is any sphere or space, beyond what is contained in the mind of Brahmá; then tell me what and how many of them are there, what are their boundaries, and how are they situated, and to what end and purpose.

47. Vasishtha replied:—Know Ráma, that there are ten other spheres beyond this world (and each of them ten times greater that the preceding one). Of these the first is the sphere of water, lying beyond the two parts (or continents) of the earth. It is ten times greater than the land which it covers, as the shadow of evening overspreads the sky.

48. Beyond that is the sphere of heat, which is ten times greater in its extent than that of water; and afar from this is the region of the winds, whose circle is ten times larger than that of solar heat and light.

40949. Next to these is the sphere of air, which is ten times as wide as the circuits of the winds; It is the highest sphere of transparent air, and is said to comprise the infinite vacuity of the divine spirit.

50. Afar and aloft from these, there are some other spheres also, whose circles extend to the distance of ten times above one another in the vast infinity of space.^[2]

51. Ráma said:—Tell me, O chief of sages, who is it that upholds the water of the deep below, and supports the air of the firmament above the world; and in what manner they are held aloof.

52. Vasishtha replied:—All earthly things are upheld by the earth, as the waters support the leaves of lotuses upon it; and every part depends upon the whole, as a babe depends upon its mother (or as the young of an ape, clings to the breast of its dam, and never falls off from it).

53. Hence everything runs to, and is attracted by whatever is larger than it, and situated nearer to it than others; just as the thirsty man runs to, and is attracted by the adjacent water. (Here we find the discovery of the theory of attraction, some thousands of years before it was discovered by Newton, and known to moderns).

54. So all metallic and other bodies, depend upon the close union of their parts, which being joined together, are as inseparable from one another, as the limbs and members of a person are attached to the main body.

55. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, how do the parts of the world subsist together; in what manner they are joined with one another, and how are they disjoined from one another, and destroyed at last.

56. Vasishtha replied:—Whether the world is supported by some one or not, and whether it remains fixed (by attraction) or 410falls off (by its gravity); it is in reality an unsubstantial form, like that of a city in a dream.

57. What is it falls away or remains fixed on some support, it is viewed in the same manner, as our consciousness represents it unto us.

58. The world is contained in and represented by the intellect, in the same manner, as the wind is contained in and let out of air; and as the sky presents the blueness of the firmament, and other airy appearances.

59. These habitable worlds forming the universe, are but imaginary cities and creations of the Intellect; they are but airy representations of the airy mind, as the formless sky is represented in empty vacuity, and appearing in various forms unto us.

60. As it is the nature of our Intellect, to give many things to our consciousness, so it is its nature also, to make us unconscious of their disappearance by day and night.

61. An innumerable train of thoughts, are incessantly employing our minds when we are sitting and at rest; and so they are flying off and returning to us by day and night.

62. All things appear to approach to their dissolution, to one who knows their destructibility and their ultimate extinction at the end of a kalpa period or millennium; and they seem as ever growing to one, who is conversant with their growth only in the vacuity of the mind.

63. All our thoughts appear in the vacuum of our minds, as the vaporous chains of pearls are seen in the autumn sky; they are both as erroneous and fleeting as the other, and yet they press so very thick and quick on our sight and minds, that there is no reckoning of them.

Vasishtha related:—I beheld afterwards, O Ráma! the same Rudra standing in the same firmament, and dancing with a hideous form in the same part of the sky.

2. This body then became as big as to fill the whole atmosphere, and as deep and dark black as to cover the ten sides of the sky, under the shadow of its sable appearance.

3. Its three eye-balls flashed with the flaming lights of the sun, moon and fire; and the body which was as black as the fumes of a dark flame, was as mute as the ten sides of the naked sky.

4. The eyes were blazing with the flame of the submarine fire, and the arms were as ponderous as the huge surges of the sea; and the blue body, seemed as the consolidated form of waters rising from the blue universal ocean.

5. As I was looking upon this enormous body, I saw a form like that of its shadow rising from it; and jumping about in the manner of dancing.

6. I was thinking in my mind, as to how could this appear in this dark and dreary night; when the heavens were hid under darkness, and there was no luminary shining in the sky (to cause the shadow).

7. As I was reflecting in this manner, I beheld on the foreground of that etherial stage, the stalwart phantom of a dark dingy female with three eyes, prancing and dancing and glancing all about.

8. She was of a large and lean stature, and of a dark black 412complexion; with her flaming eye-balls burning as fire, and girt with wild flowers all over her body.

9. She was as inky black as pasted pitch, and as dark as the darkest night or Erebus; and with her body of darkness visible, she appeared as the image of primeval night.

10. With her horrid and wide open jaws, she seemed to view the spacious vacuum of air; and with her long legs and outstretched arms, she appeared to measure the depth and breadth of open space on all sides.

11. Her frame was as faint as it was reduced by long enduring fast, and it stooped lower and lower as if pressed down by hunger; it was wavering to and fro, as a body of sable clouds is driven backward and forward by the driving winds.

12. Her stature was so lean and long, that it could not stand by itself; and was supported like a skeleton, by the ligaments of the ribs, and ligatures of arteries, which uphold it fast from falling.

13. In a word her stature was so tall and towering, that it was by my diurnal journey in the upper and lower skies, that I came to see the top of her head, and the base of her feet.

14. After this I beheld her body, as a bush of tangling thickets and thistles, by the complicate ligatures of the tendons and arteries, which fastened all its members together.

15. She was wrapped in vests of various hues, and her head was decked by the luminaries belike her head-dress of lotus flowers. She was beset by the pure light of heaven, and her robe flashed as fire, enflamed by the breath of winds.

16. The lobes of her long ears, were adorned with rings of snakes, and pendents of human skulls; her kneebones were as prominent as two dried gourd shells, and her two dark dugs hung down loosely upon her breast.

17. The braid of hair on the top of her head, was adorned with feathers of male and young peacocks; and defied the crowned 413head of the lord of Gods (i.e. Indra), and the circlet of his discus (Khattánga).

18. Her moon like teeth, cast their lustre like moon beams; and it glistened amidst the dark ocean of chaotic night, as the moon beams play upon the surface, and rising waves of the dark blue deep.

19. Her long stature rose as a large tree in the sky, and her two kneepans resembled two dry gourds growing upon it; and these clattered like the rustling of a tree by the breeze, as she turned about in the air.

20. And as she danced about in the air, with her sombre arms lifted on high; they resembled the rising of the waves of dark ocean of eternity. (The words Kála and Kálí—implying both the black goddess and dark eternity).

21. Now she lifts one arm and then many more, and at last she displays her countless hands; to play her part in the playhouse of the universe.

22. Now she shows but one face and then another, and afterwards many more ad infinitum; in order to represent her various and infinite parts, in the vast theatre of the world.

23. Now she dances on one foot, and instantly on both her feet; she stands on a hundred legs in one moment, and on her numberless feet at another.

24. I understood this person to be the figure of chaotic, and the same which the wise have ascertained as the goddess known under the designation of Kálior eternal night. Or I presently recognized her as the figure of kála-rátri or dark night; which the wise have ascertained to be the image of dark eternity, as designated as the goddess Kálí—Hecate or chaotic night. (But Kálias in Greek, means Sundarí or fair and beautiful also).

25. The sockets of her triple eyes flashed with a flame, like that of the furnace of a fire engine; and her forest was as glaring and flaring, as the burning Indra-níla mountain.

26. Her cheek-bones were as frightful as two high hills, 414projecting over her hideous open mouth; appearing as a mountain cavern, and capable of ingulfing the whole world in it. (Hence Káli the type of time, is said to be the devourer of all things, and restorer of them in unconscious womb).

27. Her shoulder-blades were as high as two mountain peaks, piercing the starry frame; where they were decorated by the clusters of stars, as with strings of pearls.

28. She danced with her outstretched arms, resembling the waving branches of trees; and displayed the brightness of her nails, like that of blooming blossoms upon them; or as so many full moons shining under the azure sky.

29. As she turned and tossed her sable hands on every side, she seemed as a dark cloud moving about in the sky; and the lustre of her nails, appeared to shed the splendour of stars all around.

30. The face of the sky resembled a forest ground, occupied by the black arbours of her two sable arms; and her outstretched fingers resembling the twigs of the trees, were covered over by the blossoms of their pearly nails, which waved as flowers in azure sky.

31. With her legs taller than the tallest tála and tamála trees, she stalked over the burning earth, and put to shame the largest trees that grew upon it (and kept burning without being able to move).

32. The long and flowing hairs on her head, reached to and spread over the skies; and seemed about to form black vestures for the dark elephantine clouds, moving about in the empty air.

33. She breathed from her nostrils a rapid gale of wind, which bore the mountains aloft in the air; and blew great gales in the sky; resounding with loud repeals from all sides of its boundless spheres.

34. The breath of her nostrils and mouth, blew in unison all about the circle of the universe; and kept the great sphere in its constant rotation, as it were in its enharmonic progression.

35. I then came to perceive, as I looked on her with attention, 415that her stature was enlarging with her dancing, till at last I found it to fill the whole space of the air and sky.

36. And as long I continued to behold her in her dancing state, I saw the great mountains pendant all about her body, as if they were a string of jewels around her person.

37. The dark diluvian clouds formed a sablegarb about her body, and the phenomena of the three worlds appeared as the various decorations, that adorned her person.

38. The Himálaya and Sumeru mountains, were as her two silver and golden ear-rings, and the rolling worlds, resembled the ringing trinkets and belts about her waist.

39. The ranges of boundary mountains, were as chains and wreaths of flower upon her person; and the cities and towns and villages and islands, were as the leaves of trees scattered about her.

40. All the cities and towns of the earth, appeared as adornments on her person; and all the three worlds and their seasons and divisions of time, were as ornaments and garments upon her body.

41. She had the streams of holy rivers of Gangá and Yamuná, hanging down as strings of pearls from the ears of her other heads. So the virtues and vices (recorded in the srutis), formed decorations of her ears also.

42. The four vedas were her four breasts, which exuded with the sweet milk (of religion) in the manner of her sweat; and the doctrines of other sástras, flowed as milk from their nipples.

43. The armour and arms, and the various weapons as the sword and the shield, the spear and the mallet, which she bore on her body; decorated her person as with wreaths of flowers.

44. The Gods and all the fourteen kinds of animal beings, were all situated as lines of hair on her person, in her form of animated nature itself.

45. The cities and villages and hills, which were situated in her person; all joined in their merry dance with herself, in the expectation of their resurrection, in the same forms again.

41646. The unstable moving creation also, which rested in her, appeared to me as if they were situated in the next world, and dancing with joy in the hope of their revivification. (The living that are dead and buried in the chaotic Kálí, are to be revivified to life again).

47. The chaotic Kálí, having devoured and assimilated the world in herself; dances with joy like the peacock, after gorging a snake in its belly, and at the appearance of a dark cloud.

48. The world continues to remain and exhibit its real form, in her wide extended figure; as the shadow of a thing is seen in a mirror, and the situations of countries are shown in a map.

49. I saw her sometimes to stand still, with the whole world and all its forests and mountains; to be moving and dancing in her person; and all forms to be repeatedly reduced in and produced from her.

50. I beheld the harmonious oscillation of the whole, in the mirror of that person; and I saw the repeated rising and setting of the world in that circle, without its utter extinction.

51. I marked the revolution of the stars, and the rising of mountains within its circumference, and I observed the throngs of gods and demigods, to assemble and disperse on her in time, as flights of gnats and flies, are driven to and fro by the winds in open air.

52. All these heavenly bodies and these islands in the ocean, are moving around her, like the flying wheels of a broken warcar; and they whirl up and down about her, like the rocks and woods in a whirlpool.

53. She is clad in the robes of the blue clouds, which are furled and folded by the breezes of air; and the cracking of wood and bones under feet, answer the sound of her foot-steps and anklets below.

54. The world is filled with the noise of the concussion and separation of its objects, and the tumult of worldly people; appearing as passing shadows in a mirror, or as the entrance and exits of actors in a play on the stage.

41755. The high-headed Meru and the long armed (ranged) boundary mountains, seem to be dancing about her in their representations in the moving clouds; and the forest trees seen in the clouds, seem to perform their circuitous dance all around.

56. The high-swelling seas were heaving their waves to heaven, bearing with them the uprooted woods of the coasts on high, and again hurling them down, and sinking them in the waters below.

57. The cities were seen to be rolling with a tremendous noise in the waters below, and no relics of houses and towers and the habitations of human kind, were found to be left beneath.

58. As the chaotic night (kála-rátri) was thus roving at random, the sun and moon with their light and shade, found shelter in the tops of her nails, where they sparkled as threads of gold. (i.e. The flash of her nails, afforded the only light amidst the universe of gloom).

59. She was clad in the blue mantle of the clouds, and adorned with necklaces of frost and icicles; and the worlds hung about her, like the trickling dewdrops of her perspiration.

60. The blue sky formed her covering veil about her head, the infernal region her footstool, the earth her bowels, and the several sides (or points of the compass) were so many arms on her.

61. The seas and their islands, formed the cavities and pimples in her person; the hills and rocks made her rib bones, and the winds of heaven were her vital airs.

62. As she continues in her dancing, the huge mountains and rocks swing and reel about her gigantic body, as her attendant satellites.

63. The mountain trees turning around her, appear to weave chaplets and dance about, in congratulation of her commencing a new cycle or kalpa.

64. The gods and demigods, the hairless serpents and worms, and all hairy bodies; are all but component parts of 418her body; and being unable to remain quiescent while she is in motion, are all turning round with her.

65. She weaves the three fold cord of the sacred thread—trivrit, consisting of acts, sacrifices and knowledge, which she proclaims aloud in the thundering voice of the triple vedas.

66. Before her (i.e. in the infinite space), there is no heaven or earth (i.e. up or down); but the one becomes the other, by its constant rotation like the wheel of a vehicle.

67. Her wide open nostrils constantly breathe out hoarse currents of her breath, which give rise to the winds of air, and their loud sufflations and whistlings.

68. Her hundred fold arms revolving in all the four directions, give the sky the appearance of a forest; filled with the tall heads of trees and their branches, shaken by a furious tornado in the air.

69. At last my steady eye-sight grew tired, with viewing the varieties of productions from her body; and their motions and movements, resembling the manners of an army in warfare.

70. Mountains were seen to be rolling as by an engine, and the cities of the celestials falling downward; and all these appearances were observed to take place in the mirror of her person.

71. The Meru mountains were torn and borne away as branches of trees, and the Malayas were tossed about as flying leaves; the Himálayas fell down as dewdrops, and all earthly things are scattered as straws.

72. The hills and rocks fled away, and the Vindhyas flew as aerials in the air; the woods rolled in the whirlpools, and the stars floated in the sea of heaven, as swans and geese in the lakes below.

73. Islands floated as straws in the ocean of her body, and the seas were worn as circlet on it; the abodes of the gods were like lotus-flowers, blooming in the large lake of her person.

74. As we see the images of cities in our dream, and in the 419darkness of night, as clearly we behold them in the fair sky light; so I beheld all things in her dark body, as vividly as they shone in broad sunlight.

75. All things though immovable, as the mountains and seas and arbours; appear to be moving in and dancing about in her person.

76. So the wandering worlds are dancing about in the great circle of her spacious body, as if they were mere straws in the vast ocean of creation. Thus the sea rolls on the mountain, and the high hills pierces the hollow of the heaven above. This heaven also with its sun and moon, are turning below the earth; and the earth with all its islands and mountains, cities, forests and flowery gardens; is dancing in heaven round about the sun. (Describing the harmonious dance of the planetary spheres in empty air).

77. The mountains are wandering (with the earth), amidst the surrounding sky; and the sea passes beyond the horizon (with the rotation of the earth); and so the cities and all human habitations, traverse through other skies; and so also the rivers and lakes pass through other regions, as objects reflecting themselves in different mirrors, and as swiftly as the leaf of a tree torn by a tempest, is hurled on and borne afar to distant parts.

78. Fishes skim in the desert air (or etherial desert), as they swim in the watery plain; and cities are situated in empty air, as firmly as they are fixed on solid earth. The waters are raised to heaven by the clouds, which are again driven back by the winds, to pour their waters on mountain tops.

79. The groups of stars are wandering about, like lustres of a thousand lamps lighted in the sky; they seem to shed gems with their rays as they roll, or scatter flowers from all sides on the heads of gods and aerial beings.

80. Creations and destructions accompany her, as fleeting days and nights, or as jewels of brilliant and black gems on her person. They are as the two fortnights resembling her white and black wings on either side.

42081. The sun and moon are the two bright gems on her person, and the clusters of stars form her necklaces of lesser gems; the clear firmament is her white apparel, and the flashes of lightnings form the brocaded fringes of her garment.

82. As she dances in her giddy dance of destruction, she huddles the worlds under her feet as her anklets, raising thereby a jingling sound as that of her trinkets.

83. In her warfare with the jarring elements, rolling on like waves of the ocean, and darkening the daylight as by the waving swords of warriors, she listens to the tumult of all the worlds and their peoples.

84. The gods Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva, together with the regents of sun and moon and fire, and all other gods and demigods, that shine in their respective offices; are all made to fly before like a flight of gnats, and with the velocity of lightning.

85. Her body is a congeries of conflicting elements and contrary principles, and creation and destruction, existence and non-existence, happiness and misery, life and death, and all injunctions and prohibitions (i.e. the mandatory and prohibitory laws, do all abide conjointly and yet separately in her person).

86. The various states of production and existence, and continuance of action and motion, and their cessation which appear to take place in her body, as in those of all corporeal beings, together with the revolution of the earth and all other worlds in empty air; are all but false delusions of our minds, as there is nothing in reality except a boundless vacuity.

87. Life and death, peace and trouble, joy and sorrow, war and truce, anger and fear, envy and enmity, faith and distrust and all other opposite feelings; are concomitants with this worldly life, and they dwell together in the same person, as the various gems stored in a chest.

88. The intellectual sphere of her body, teems with notions of multifarious worlds; which appear as phantoms in the open air, or as fallacies of vision to the dim sighted man.

89. Whether the world is quiescent in the intellect, or a passing phenomenon of outward vision; it appears both as stable 421as well as moving, like the reflexion of objects in a standing or shaking mirror.

90. All worldly objects are as fluctuating, as the changing shows in a magic play; they forsake their forms and assume others as quickly, as the fickle desires of whimsical boys are ever shifting from one object to another.

91. It is the combination of causal powers, which cause the production of bodies; and it is their separation which effects their dissolution; as it is the accumulation of grains, which makes a granary, and their abstraction which tends to its disappearance.

92. The Goddess now appears in one form, and then in another; she becomes now as small as the thumb finger, and in a moment fills the sky (with the bigness of her body).

93. That goddess is all in all, she is changed through every thing in world, and is the cosmos itself and the power of the intellect also; she fills the whole concavity of the sky with her form of pure vacuity.

94. She is the intellect, which embraces all, whatever is contained in the three worlds and in all the three times (of the past, present, and future). It is she that expands the worlds which are contained in her, as a painter draws out the figures which are pictured in the receptacle of his mind.

95. She is the all comprehensive and plastic nature or form of all things; and being one with the intellectual spirit, she is equally as calm and quiet as the other. Being thus uniform in her nature, she is varied to endless forms in the twinkling of her eye.

96. All these visibles appear in her, as marks of lotuses and carved figures are seen in a hollow stone (or in the perforated sáligram stones of gunduk). Her body is the hollow sphere of heaven, and her mind is full of all forms, appearing as waves in the depth of sea, or as the sights of things in the bosom of a crystal stone (as reflected in it by the Divine Intellect).

97. The very furious goddess Bhairaví—the consort of the dread god Bhairava—the lord of destruction, was thus dancing about with her fierce forms filling the whole firmament.

42298. On one side the earth was burning with the fire, issuing from the eye on the fore-head of all destroying Rudra; and on the other was his consort Rudraní, dancing like a forest blown away by a hurricane.

99. She was armed more over with many other weapons, (beside those that are mentioned before); such as a spade, a mortar and pestle, a mallet, a mace &c.; which adorned her body as a garland of flowers.

100. In this manner, she danced and scattered the flowers of her garlands on all sides; in her acts of destructions and recreation (as preliminaries on one another).

101. She hailed the god Bhairava—the regent of the skies, who joined her in dancing with his form as big and high as hers.

102. May the god Bhairava, with his associate Goddess of Kálarátri or chaotic night, preserve you all in their act of heroic dance, with the beating of high sounding drums, and the blowing of their buffalo horn, as they drink their bowls of blood and are adorned with wreaths of flowers, hanging down from their heads to the breasts.

Ráma rejoined:—Who is this goddess, sir, that is dancing thus in her act of destruction, and why is it that she bears on her body the pots and fruits as her wreaths of flowers?

2. Say, whether the worlds are wholly destroyed at the end, or they become extinct in the goddess Káli, and reside in her person, and when doth her dance come to an end.

3. Vasishtha replied:—Neither is he a male, nor is she a female; nor was there a dancing of the one, or a duality of the two (in their spirit); such being the case (of their unity), and such the nature of their action (of destruction); neither of them any form, or figure of their own (except that they are personified as such).

4. That which is without its beginning or end, is the divine Intellect alone; which in the manner of infinite vacuity, is the cause of all causes. (In the beginning all was void, which caused all things).

5. It is the increate and endless light, that exists from eternity, and extends over all space. This calm and quiet state of the etherial space is known as Siva or tranquil, and its change to confusion at the end, is denominated Bhairava or the dreadful. (i.e. the Lord acting his dreadful part in the theatre of the universe).

6. It is impossible for the pure and formless intellect, to remain alone and aloof from its association with plastic nature; as it is not likely to find any gold to exist without some form or other. (So the sruti:—The creation and absorption of the world, require a formal agent and recipient also).

7. Say ye who know, how the intellect may subsist without 424its intelligence, and where a pepper may be had without its pungency? (There is nothing without its necessary property, nor the formal world without a formal cause).

8. Consider how can there be any gold, without its form of a bracelet or any other; and how doth a substance exist without its substantial property or nature?

9. Say what is the extract of the sugar-cane, unless it is possessed of its sweetness; you can not call it the juice of sugar-cane, unless you find the saccharine flavour in the same.

10. When the intellect is devoid of its intellection, you can not call it as the intellect any more; nor is the vacuous form of the intellect, ever liable to any change or annihilation. (A void is devoid of all accidents).

11. Vacuity admits of no variety, besides its retaining the identity of its inanity; and in order to assume a diversity, the void must remain a void as ever. (Or else it becomes a solid, which is no more itself).

12. Therefore the unchanged and unagitated essence, which is essential to it, must be without beginning and unlimited, and full of all potency in itself (since vacuum is the medium both of creation as well as of annihilation also).

13. And therefore the creation of the three worlds and their destruction, the earth, firmament and the sides of the compass; together with all the acts of creation and destruction, are the indiscriminate phenomena of vacuum.

14. All births, deaths, delusions and ignorance, being and not being, together with knowledge and dullness, restraint and liberty, and all events whether good or evil.

15. Knowledge and its want, the body and its loss, temporariness and diuturnity; together with mobility and inertia, and egoism and tuism and illism.

16. All good and evil, goodness and badness, ignorance and intelligence; together with durations of time and space, substance and action, and all our thoughts, fancies and imagination.

42517. The sight of the forms of things and the thoughts of the mind, the action of the body, understanding and senses; with those of the elements of earth and water, fire, air, and vacuum extending all about us.

18. These and all others, proceed from the pure intellectual vacuity of the Divine spirit; which resides in its vacuous form in everything and is always without decay and decrease.

19. All things subsist in pure vacuum, and are as pure as the void itself; there is nothing beside this empty air, though they appear as real as doth a mountain in our hollow dream.

20. The intellectual spirit, which I have said to be transcendent void; is the same which we call as jíva—the sempiternal and Rudra—the august.

21. He is adored as Hari or Vishnu by some, and as Brahmá the great progenitor of men by others; he is called the sun and moon, and as Indra, Varuna, Yama, the Viráta and the God of fire also.

22. He is the marut or wind, the cloud and sea, the sky, and everything that there is or is not; all whatever manifests itself in the empty sphere of the Intellect.

23. In this manner all things appearing under different names, and taken to be true by the ignorant eye; vanish into nothing in their spiritual light, which shows them in their pure intellectual natures.

24. In the understanding of the ignorant, the world appears as apart from the spirit; but to the intellectual soul, the vacuity of the intellect is known to be situated in the Divine spirit; therefore there is no distinction of unity and duality to the knowing mind (in which all multiplicities blend into unity).

25. So long is the living soul tossed about as a wave in the ocean of the world, and running the course of its repeated births and deaths in it; until it comes to know the nature of the supreme spirit, when it becomes as immortal and perfect as the eternal soul and self-same with it.

26. By this knowledge of the universal soul, the human 426soul attains its perfect tranquility; as to find itself no more, as the fluctuating wave in the ocean of the world, but views itself and everything beside, to be as calm and quiet, as the eternal and infinite spirit of God.

Vasishtha added:—I have already related to you, that Siva is the representation of the vacuous intellect; but not so is Rudra, whom I have described as dancing all about.

2. The form that is attributed to him (or to the goddess kálí); is not their real figure; but a representation of the grosser aspect of intellectual vacuity (which is of a dark complexion).

3. I saw with my intellectual and clear vision (clair-voyance), that sphere of the intellect in its clear, bright and clear light (as that of Siva’s body); but it did not appear so to others, who beheld it in their ignorance, to be as dark as the black complexion of the associate goddess. (There is shadow under the lamp).

4. I saw at the end of the kalpa cycle, the two spectres of delusion, appearing before me; the one was the furious Rudra, and the other—the ferocious Bhairava; and knew them both to be but delusion, and creatures of my mistaken fancy.

5. The great chasm which is seen to exist in the vacuous sphere of the Intellect, the same is supposed to be conceived under the idea of a vast void, represented as the dreadful Bhairava.

6. We can have no conception of anything, without knowing the relation, the significant term and its signification; it is for that reason that I related this to you, as I found it to be.

7. Whatever idea is conveyed to the mind by the significant term, know Ráma, the very same to be presently presented before the outward sight by the power of delusion and as a magical appearance.

4288. In reality there is no destruction, nor the destructive power of Bhairava or Bhairaví (in the masculine or feminine gender); all these are but erroneous conceptions fleeting in the empty space of the intellect. (It is the bias of the mind, which presents these hobgoblins to sight).

9. These appearances are as those of the cities seen in our dream, or as a warfare shewn in our fancy; they are as the utopian realms of one’s imagination, or as the fits of our feelings on some pathetic and heart stirring description.

10. As the fairy castle is seen in the field of fancy, and strings of pearls hanging in the empty air; and as mists and vapours darken the clear atmosphere, so are there the troops of fallacies flying all about the firmament of the intellect.

11. But the clear sky of the pure intellect, shines of itself in itself; and when it shines in that state, it shows the world in itself.

12. The soul exhibits itself in its intellectual sphere, in the same manner as a figure is seen in picture; and the soul manifests also in the raging fire of final destruction. (The same soul is equally manifest in the subjective, as well as in the objective, i.e. both in itself as in all other things whatsoever).

13. I have thus far related to you, regarding the formlessness of the forms of Siva and his consort Sivání; hear me now to tell you concerning their dance, which was literally no dancing.

14. Sensation cannot exist any where (in any person), without the action of the power (lit, element) of intellection; as it is not possible for anything to be a nothing or appear otherwise than what it is. (Gloss. There can be no sensation without action of the power of intellection, as there can be no pearl-shell without the appearance of silver in it).

15. Therefore the powers of sensations and perception, are naturally united with all thing, as Rudra and his consort, who are blended together as gold and silver appearing as one and the same metal.

16. Whatever is sensation and wherever it exists, the same 429must be a sensible object, and have action or motion for its natural property.

17. Whatever is the action of the Intellect, whose consolidated form is called by the name Siva, the same is the cause of our motions also; and as these are actuated by our will and desires, they are called the dance or vacillations (of the intellectual power).

18. Therefore the furious form of Rudra, which is assumed by the god Siva at the end of a kalpa; which is said to dance about at that time, is to be known as vibration of the divine intellect.

19. Ráma rejoined:—This world being nothing in reality, in the sight of the right observer; and anything that there remains of it in any sense whatever, the same is also destroyed at the end of the kalpa.

20. How then does it happen at the end of the kalpa, when everything is lost in the formless void of vacuity, that this consolidated form of intellect, known as Siva remains and thinks in itself.

21. Vasishtha replied:—O Ráma! if you entertain such doubt, then hear me tell you, how you can get over the great ocean of your doubts, respecting the unity and duality of the deity:—that all things being extinct at the end, there remains the thinking and subjective intellect alone, without anything objective to think upon.

22. The subjective soul then thinks of nothing, but remains quite tranquil in itself; as the unmoving and mute stone, and resting in the solid vacuity of its omniscience.

23. If it reflects at all on anything, it is only on itself; because it is the nature of the intellect to dwell calmly in itself.

24. As the intellect appears itself, like the inward city it sees within itself in a dream; so there is nothing in real existence any where, except the knowledge thereof, which is inherent in the intellect. (So it is with the divine intellect, whose omniscience comprehends the knowledge of every thing in itself).

25. The divine soul knowing everything in itself, and in its 430vacuous intellect, sees the manifestation of the universe at the time of creation, by simple development of itself.

26. The intellect developes itself of its own nature, within its vacuous cell at first; and then in a moment envelopes this erroneous universe in itself, and at his will at the time of its destruction.

27. The intellect expands itself, in itself in its natural state of vacuum; and devolves itself likewise into its conceptions of I and thou and all others (which are but false ideas and creatures of its imagination).

28. Therefore there exists no duality nor unity, nor an empty vacuity either; there is neither an intelligence or its want or the both together; so is there neither my meism nor thy tuism either.

29. There is nothing that ever thinks of anything, nor aught whatever which is thought of or object thereof of its own nature; therefore there is nothing that thinks or reflects, but all is quite rest and silence.

30. It is the unalterable steadiness of the mind, which is the ultimate samádhi or perfection of all sástras; therefore the living yogi aught to remain, as the mute and immovable stone in his meditation.

31. Now Ráma, remain to discharge your ordinary duties, as they are incumbent on you by the rules of your race; but continue to be quiet and steady in your spiritual part, by renouncing all worldly pride and vanity; and enjoy a peaceful composure in your mind and soul, as that of the serene and calm and clear concavity of the sky.

Ráma said:—Tell me sir, why the goddess Káli is said to be dancing about, and why is she armed with axe and other weapons, and arrayed with her wreaths of flowers.

2. Vasishtha replied:—It is the vacuum of the intellect, which is called both as Siva and Bhairava; and it is this intellectual power or force, which is identic with itself, that is called Káli and its consorting mind.

3. As the wind is one with its vacillation, and the fire is identic with its heat; so is the intellect identical with its oscillation. (The mind is ever fleeting and active as dull matter is inert and inactive).

4. As the wind is invisible even in its act of vacillations, and the heat is unseen even in its act of burning; so the intellect is imperceptible notwithstanding its acting, and is therefore called Siva—the calm and quiet.

5. It is because of the wondrous power of his vibration, that he is known to us, and without which we could have no knowledge of his existence; know therefore this Siva to be the all powerful Brahma, who is otherwise a quiescent being, and unknowable even by the learned and wise.

6. His oscillation is the power of his will, which has spread-out this visible appearance; as it is the will of an embodied and living man, that builds a city according to his thought (or just as it depends on the option of a living person, to erect a city according to the model in his thought or mind).

7. It is the will of Siva or Jove that creates all this world from its formless state, and it is this creative power which is the Intelligence of God, and the intellection of living being.

4328. This power takes also the form of nature in her formation of the creation, and is called the creation itself, on account of her assuming on herself the representation of the phenomenal world.

9. She is represented with a crest of submarine fire on her head, and to be dry and withered in her body; she is said to be a fury on account of her furiousness, and called the lotiform from the blue-lotus-like complexion of her person.

10. She is called by the names jayá and siddha (victory and fortune), owing to her being accompanied by victory and prosperity at all times.

11. She is also designated as Aparájitá or invincible, viryá the mighty and Durgá—the inaccessible, and is like wise renowned as umá, for her being composed of the powers of the three letters of the mystic syllable Om. (In the birth of umá, the subject of the first canto of Kumára Sambhaba, Kálidása says, “Tapasa nibrita je umeti námná prakírtitá,” she was termed umá for prevention of austerities. The glossarists have all explained the passage in the sense of the mythic personification of umá, and nobody has ever known its mystic interpretation of sacred syllable Om itself, whose utterance precludes the necessity of all formal devotions: i.e. to say, umá-is-om the divine mantra itself).

12. She is called the gáyatrí (hymn) from its being chanted by every body, and Sávitrí also from her being the progenitrix of all beings; she is named Sarasvatí likewise, for her giving us an insight into whatever appears before our sight.

13. She bears the appelation of Gaurí from her gaura or fair complexion, and of Bhavání from her being the source of all beings, as also from her association with the body of Bhava—or Siva. She is also termed the letter अ (a) to signify her being the vital breath of all waking and sleeping bodies.

14. Umá means moreover the digit of the moon, which enlightens the worlds from the forehead of Siva; and the bodies of the God and Goddess are both painted as black and blue, from their representing the two hemispheres of heaven.

43315. The sky appears as dark and bright from the two complexions of these divinities, who are situated in the vacuous forms in the bosom of the great vacuum itself.

16. Though they are formless as empty airs, yet they are conceived as the first-born of the void; and are figuratively attributed with more or less hands and feet, and holding as many weapons in them.

17. Now know the reason of attributing the Goddess with many weapons and instruments, to be no more, than of representing her, as the patron of all arts and their employments.

18. She was self-same with the supreme soul, as its power of self-meditation from all eternity; and assumed the shapes of the acts of sacred ablutions, religions, sacrifices, and holy gifts, as her primal forms in vedas. (i.e. The intellectual power (chit-sakti) evolves itself to meditation and action—dhyána and Karma).

19. She is of the form of the azure sky, comely in appearance and is the beauty of the visibles; she is the motion of all objects, and the varieties of their movements are the various modes of the dancing of the goddess. (the divine power or force—sakti, is always personified as his female agent, as it is evident in the words potentia, energia, exergasia, qudrat, taquat &c.).

20. She is the agent of Brahmá in his laws of the birth, decay, and deaths of beings; and all cities and countries, mountains and islands, hang on her agency as a string of gems about her neck.

21. She holds together all parts of the world, as by her power of attraction; and infuses her force as momentum in them all, as it were into the different limbs and members of her body, she bears the various appellations of Kálí, Kálika &c., according to her several functions denoted by those terms (in the glossary).

22. She as the one great body of the cosmos, links together all its parts like her limbs unto her heart; and moves them all about her; though this formless body of force, has never been seen or known by any body. (We always see the moving 434bodies about us, but never the moving force which moves them all about).

23. Know this ever oscillant power to be never different or unconnected, from the quiescent spirit of Siva the changeless god; nor think the fluctuating winds to be ever apart from the calm vacuum, in which they abide and vibrate for ever.

24. The world is a display of the glory of God, as the moonlight is a manifestation of the brightness of that luminary; which is otherwise dark and obscure; so the lord God is ever tranquil and quiet and without any change or decay without his works.

25. There is not the least shadow, of fluctuation in the supreme soul; it is the action of this agency, that appears to be moving us. (Gloss. The inactive spirit of God is the true reality, and the passing phenomena are all but vanity).

26. That is said to be the tranquil spirit of Siva—the god, which reverts itself from action, and reposes in its understanding; and apart from the active energy which possesses the intellect as its goddess. (Hence the state of the soul in perfect rest and repose is called Siva—salvus or felicity).

27. The intellect reposing in its natural state of the understanding, is styled Siva—salvus or felix; but the active energy of the intellectual power, is what passes under the name of the great goddess of action.

28. That bodiless power, assumes the imaginary forms of these worlds, with all the peoples that are visible in them in the day light.

29. It is this power which supports the earth, with all its seas and islands, and its forests, deserts and mountains, it maintains the vedas with its angas, upangas, the sástras, sciences and the psalms. (The vedas are four in number, its angas or branches called the six vedángas namely, the siksha, kalpa, nirukta, vyákarana, chhanda and jyotisha. The upangas or subsidiary branches are the four arts, viz., áyurveda or medicine, dhanurveda—archery, gandharva—music &c. The vidyas are the sciences and philosophy, and the gítás are sámagiti or the psalm of sámaveda).

43530. It ordains the injunctions and prohibitions (of law), and gives the rules of auspicious and inauspicious acts and rites; it directs the sacrifices and sacrificial fires, and the modes of offering cakes and oblations.

31. This goddess is adorned with the sacrificial implements, as the mortar and pestle, the post and ladle &c.; and is arrayed with the weapons of warfare also, as the spear, arrows and the lance.

32. She is arrayed with the mace and many missile weapons also; and accompanied by horse and elephants and valiant gods with her. In short she fills the fourteen worlds, and occupies the earth with all its seas and islands.

33. Ráma said:—I will ask you sir, to tell me now, whether the thoughts of creation in the divine mind, subsisted (in their ideal forms) in the Divine soul; or they were incorporated in the forms of Rudra and which are false and fictitious.

34. Vasishtha replied:—Ráma, she is verily the power of the Intellect (Divine mind), as you have rightly said; and all these that there are being thought of by her, they are all true as her thoughts (and not in their visible appearances).

35. The thoughts that are subjective and imprinted in the inner intellect (from preconceived desire or reminiscence), are never untrue; just as the reflection of our face cast in a mirror from without, cannot be a false shadow.

36. But those thoughts are false, which enter into the mind from without, as the whole body (lit. city of our desires and false imaginations); and the fallacies of these are removed upon our right reflection and by means of our sound judgment.

37. But in my opinion, the firm belief and persuasion of the human soul in anything whatever, is reckoned as true by every one; such as the picture of a thing in a mirror, and the representations of things seen in a dream or the forms of things seen in a picture or in dream, and the creatures of our imagination are all taken for true and real by every one for the time, and for their serviceableness to him.

38. But you may object and say that, things that are absent and at a distance from you, are no way serviceable to you, and 436yet they cannot be said to be inexistent or unreal; because they come to use when they are present before us.

39. As the productions of a distant country, become of use when they are presented before us; so the objects of our dreams and thoughts, are equally true and useful when they are present in view; so also every idea of a definite shape and signification, is a certain reality (as that of the goddess Kálí).

40. As an object or its action passing under the sight of any one, is believed to be true by its observer; so whatever thought passes in his mind, is thought to be true by him. But nothing that is seen or thought of by another, is ever known to or taken into belief by any one else, or accounted as true to him.

41. It is therefore in the power of the Divine Intellect, that the embryo of the creation is contained for ever; and the whole universe is ever existent in the divine soul, it is wholly unknown to others.

42. All that is past, present, and ever to be in future, together with all the desires and thoughts of others; are for ever really existent in the divine spirit, else it would not be the universal soul. (The meaning of the universal soul is the contained of all and not that it is contained in them).

43. There are the adepts only in yoga practice, who acquire the power of prying into the hearts and minds of others; just as others come to see different countries, by passing over the barriers of hills and dales. (As the divine soul is the knower of the hearts of others, so is the pure soul of the holy divine also).

44. As the dream of a man fallen into fast sleep, is not disturbed by the shaking of his bedstead or sleeping couch; so the fixed thought of any body, are never lost by his removing from place to place (or by his departure from this life to the next, or by his transmigration from one into another).

45. So the movements of the dancing body of Káli (the creative energy of God) cause no fluctuation in the world which is contained within it; just as the shaking of a mirror, makes no alternation in the reflection which is cast upon it.

46. The great bustle and commotion of the world though seeming as real to all appearance, yet it being but a mere delusion 437in sober reality, it were as well whether it moveth all or not all (as it were the same whether we are hurried or kept sedate in a dream).

47. When is the dreaming scene or the city seen in our dream, said to be a true one, and when is it pronounced as a falseone; and when is it said to be existent and when dilapidated? (supply how for when to give it some sense).

48. Know the phenomenal world that is exposed before you, to be but mere illusion; and it is your sheer fallacy, to view the unreal visibles as sure realities.

49. Know your conception of the reality of the three worlds to be equally false, as the aerial castle of your imagination or the air drawn city of your fond desire; it is as the vision in your dream, or any conception of your error.

50. That this is I the subjective, and the other is the objective world, is the interminable error that binds fast the mind for ever; it is a gross mistake as that of the ignorant, who believe the endless sky to be bounded, and take it for black or blue; but the learned are released from this blunder (and rest in the only existent One).

Vasishtha continued:—Thus the goddess was dancing with her outstretched arms, which with their movements appeared to make a shaking forest of tall pines in the empty sky. (The Briarean arms of Kálí).

2. This power of the intellect, which is ignorant of herself and ever prone to action, continued thus to dance about with her decorations of various tools and instruments. (The mental power acts by means of the mechanical powers).

3. She was arrayed with all kinds of weapons in all her thousand arms, such as the bow and arrows, the spear and lance, the mallet and club, and the sword and all sort of missiles. She was conversant with all things whether in being or not being, and was busy at every moment of passing time. (i.e. Ever active in body and mind).

4. She contained the world in the vibration of her mind, as airy cities and castles consist in the power of imagination; it is she herself that is the world, as the imagination itself is the imaginary city—the utopia.

5. She is the volition of Siva, as fluctuation is innate in the air; and as the air is still without its vibration, so Siva is quite quiet without his will or volition (represented as his female energy in the form of Kálí).

6. The formless volition becomes the formal creation in the same manner, as the formless sky produces the wind which vibrates into sound; so doth the will of Siva bring forth the world out of itself.

7. When this volitive energy of Kálí, dances and sports in the void of the Divine mind; then the world comes out of a 439sudden, as if it were by union of the active will with the great void of the supreme Mind.

8. Being touched by the dark volitive power (or volentia), the supreme soul of Siva is dissolved into water; just as the sub-marine fire is extinguished by its contact with the water of the sea. (Water the first form of God: “and the spirit of God moved upon the surface of water”).

9. No sooner did this power come in contact with Siva—the prime cause of all, the same power of volentia, inclined and turned to assume the shape of nature, and to be converted to some physical form.

10. Then forsaking her boundless and elemental form, she took upon herself the gross and limited forms of land and hills; and then became of the form of beautiful arbours and trees. (i.e. Of the forms of minerals and vegetables).

11. (After taking various other forms), she became as the formless void, and became one with the infinite vacuity of Siva; just as a river with all its impetuous velocity, enters into the immensity of the sea.

12. She then became as one with Siva, by giving up her title of sivaship; and this Siva—the female form became the same with Siva—the prime male, who is of the form of formless void and perfect tranquility (called samana—quietus which means both death and the quiet, which follows the other. Samana like somnum is both extinction of life, and cessation of care and labour).

13. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, how that sovran Goddess Siva, could obtain her quiet by her coming in contact with the supreme God Siva (and forget her former activity altogether).

14. Vasishtha replied:—Know Ráma, the Goddess Siva to be the will of the God Siva; she is styled as nature, and famed as the great Illusion of the word.

15. And this great God is said the lord of nature, and the prime male also; he is of the form of air and is represented in the form of Siva, which is as calm and quiet as the autumnal sky.

16. The great Goddess is the energy of the Intellect and 440its will also, and is ever active as force put in motion; she abides in the world in the manner of its nature, and roves all about in the manner of the great delusion (of holding out external nature as the true reality, instead of her lord the spirit).

17. She ranges through out the world, as long as she is ignorant of her lord Siva; who is ever satisfied with himself, without decay or disease, and has no beginning or end, nor a second to himself.

18. But no sooner is this Goddess conscious of herself, as one and same with the god of self-consciousness; than she is joined with her lord Siva, and becomes one with him. (Force has its rest in inertia).

19. Nature coming in contact with the spirit, forsakes her character of gross nature; and becomes one with the sole unity, as a river is incorporated in the ocean.

20. The river falling into the sea, is no more the river but the sea; and its water joining with sea water, becomes the same briny water.

21. So the mind that is inclined to Siva, is united with him and finds its rest therein; as the iron becomes sharpened by returning to its quarry (as the knife or razor is sharpened on the white stone).

22. As the shadow of a man entering into a forest, is lost amidst the shade of the wilderness; so the shades of nature (or natural propensities), are all absorbed in the umbrage of the Divine spirit. (It also means as the nature of a woman, is changed to that of her man).

23. But the mind that remembers its own nature, and forgets that of the eternal spirit; has to return again to this world, and never attains its spiritual felicity.

24. An honest man dwells with thieves, so long as he knows them not as such; but no sooner he comes to know them as so, then he sure to shun their company and fly from the spot.

25. So the mind dwells with unreal dualities, as long as it is ignorant to the transcendent reality; but as it becomes acquainted with the true unity, he is sure to be united with it (by forsaking his dualistic creed).

44126. When the ignorant mind, comes to know the supreme felicity, which attends on the state of its self-extinction or nirvána; it is ready to resort to it, as the inland stream runs to join the boundless sea.

27. So long doth the mind roam bewildered, in its repeated births in the tumultuous world; as it does not find its ultimate bliss in the Supreme; unto whom it may fly like a bee to its honeycomb.

28. Who is there that would forget his spiritual knowledge, having once known its bliss; and who is there that forsakes the sweet, having had once tasted its flavour. Say Ráma, who would not run to relish the delicious draughts, which pacifies all our woes and pains, and prevents our repeated births and deaths, and puts an end to all our delusions in this darksome world.

Vasishtha added:—Hear now Ráma, how this whole world resides in the infinite void; and how the airy Rudra which rises from it, is freed from his deluded body, and finds his final rest in it.

2. As I stood looking on upon that block of stone, I beheld the aerial Rudra and the two upper and nether worlds, marked over it (as in a map), and remaining quite at rest.

3. Then in a moment that airy Rudra, beheld the two partitions of the earth and sky within the hollow of vacuum, with his eye balls blazing as the orb of the sun.

4. Then in the twinkling of an eye, and with the breath of his nostrils, he drew the two partitions unto him, and threw them in the horrid abyss of his mouth.

5. Having then devoured both the divisions of the world, as if they were a morsel of bread or paste food to him; he remained alone as air, and one with the universal air or void about him.

6. He then appeared as a piece of cloud, and then as a small stick, and afterwards as little as digit. (A stick is the measure of cubit, and a digit is that of a span).

7. I beheld him afterwards to become transparent as a piece of glass, which at last became as minute as to melt into the air, and vanish altogether from my microscopic sight.

8. Being reduced to an atom, it disappeared at once from view; and like the autumnal cloud became invisible altogether.

9. In this manner did the two valves of heaven (the earth and sky), wholly disappear from my sight; the wonders of which I had erelong been viewing with so much concern and delight.

44310. The cosmos being thus devoured as grass by the voracious deer; the firmament was quite cleared of everything, it became as pellucid, calm and quiet as the serene vacuum of Brahma himself.

11. I saw there but one vast expanse of intellectual sky, without any beginning, midst or end of it; and bearing its resemblance to the dreary waste of ultimate dissolution, and a vast desert and desolation.

12. I saw also the images of things drawn upon that stone, as if they were the reflexion of the things in a mirror; and then remembering the heavenly nymph and seeing all these scenes, I was lost in amazement.

13. I was amazed as a clown upon his coming to a royal city, to see that stone again clearer far than ever before.

14. This I found to be the body of goddess Kálí, in which all the worlds seemed to be inscribed as in a slab of stone; I saw these with my intellectual eyes, far better than they appear to the supernatural sight of deities.

15. I beheld therein every thing that there ever existed in any place, and though it seemed to be situated at a distance from me, yet I recognized it as the very stone (which was represented as the Divine Intellect).

16. This stone alone is conspicuous to view, and there was nothing of the worlds it contained so perspicuous in it. The stone remained for ever in the same unvaried state, with all the worlds lying concealed in it.

17. It was taintless and clean, and as fair and clear as the evening cloud; I was struck with wonder at the sight, and then fell to my meditation again.

18. I looked to the other side of the stone with my contemplative eye, and found the bustle of the world lying dormant at that place.

19. I beheld fully the great variety of things, as described before; and then I turned my sight to look into another side of it.

20. I saw it abounding with the very many creations and created worlds, accompanied with their tumults and commotions 444as I observed before; and whatever place I thought of and sought for, I found them all in the same stone.

21. I saw the fair creation, as if it were an ectype cast upon a reflector; and felt a great pleasure to explore into the mountainous source of this stone.

22. I searched in every part of the earth, and traversed through woods and forests; until I passed through every part of the world, as it was exhibited therein.

23. I saw them in my understanding, and not with my visual organs (which are both delusive and incapable of reaching so far); and beheld somewhere the first born Brahmá—the lord of creatures.

24. I then beheld his arrangement of the starry frame, and the spheres of the sun and moon; as also the rotations of days and nights, and of the seasons and years; and I saw likewise the surface of the earth, with its population here and there.

25. I saw some where the level land, and the great basins of the four oceans elsewhere; I saw some places quite unpeopled and unproductive, and others teeming with Sura and Asura races.

26. Somewhere I saw the assemblage of righteous men, with their manners and conduct as those of the pure golden age; and elsewhere I beheld the company of unrighteous people, following the practices and usages of the corrupt iron age.

27. I saw the forts and cities of the demons in certain places, with fierce and continuous warfares going on all along among them.

28. I saw vast mountainous tracts, without a pit or pool in them any where; and I beheld elsewhere the unfinished creation of the lotus-born Brahmá.

29. I saw some lands where men were free from death and decay; and others with moonless nights and bare headed Sivas in them. (The moon being the coronet of Siva’s head, it must be bare for want of the moon on it).

30. I saw the milky ocean unchurned, and filled with the dead bodies of gods; and the marine horse and elephant, the Kámadhenu cow, the physician Dhanvantari and the goddess Laxmí; 445together with the submarine poison and ambrosia, all lying hidden and buried therein.

31. I saw in one place the body of gods, assembled to baffle the attempts of the giants and the devices of their leader Sukra; and the great god Indra in another, entering into the womb of Deity—the mother of demons, and destroying the unborn brood therein.

32. It was on account of the unfading virtue (or unalterable course) of nature, that the world was brilliant as ever before; unless that somethings were placed out of their former order.

33. The ever lasting vedas ever retain their same force and sense, and never did they feel the shock of change, by the revolution of ages or even at the kalpánta dissolution of the world.

34. Sometimes the demons have despoiled, some parts of the heavenly abodes of gods; and sometimes the paradise of Eden (udyána), resounded with the songs of Gandharvas and Kinnaras. (Hence some part of the Himálayas, is said to have been the site of the garden of paradise).

35. Sometimes an amity was formed between the gods and giants, and I saw in this manner, the past, present, and future commotions of the world.

36. I then beheld in the person of the great soul of worlds, (i.e. in the face of nature which is the body of God); the meeting of the Pushkara and Avarta clouds together.

37. There was an assemblage of all created things, in peaceful union with one another in one place; and there was a joint concussion, of the gods, and demigods and sovereigns of men, in the one and same person.

38. There was the union of the sunlight and deep darkness in the same place, without their destroying one another; and there were the dark clouds, and their flashing lightnings also in the very place.

39. There were the demons Madhu and Kaitabha, residing together in the same navel-string of Brahmá; and there were 446the infant Brahmá and the lotus bud in the same navel of Vishnu.

40. In the ocean of the universal deluge, where Mádhava (the divine spirit), floated on the leaf of the bata tree (ficus religiosus); there reigned the chaotic night along with him, and spread its darkness over the face of the deep.

41. There was then but one vast void, wherein all things remained unknown and undefined, as if they lay buried and asleep, in the unconscious womb of a stony grave.

42. Nothing could be known or inferred of anything in existence, but everything seemed to be submerged in deep sleep every where; and the sky was filled by darkness, resembling the wingless crows and unwinged mountains of old.

43. On one side the loud peals of thunder, were breaking down the mountains, and melting them by the fire of the flashing lightnings; and in another, the overflowing waters were sweeping away the earth into the deep.

44. In certain places there were the warfares of the giants, as those of Tripura, Vritra, Andha, and Valí, and in others there were terrible earthquakes, owing to the trepidation of the furious elephant in the regions below. (This elephant is said so be one of the supports of the earth).

45. On one hand the earth was tottering on the thousand hoods on the infernal serpent Vásuki, which trembled with fear at the kalpánta deluge of the world; and on the other the young Ráma killing the Rákshas, with their leader Rávana (an event which was yet to occur).

46. On one side was Ráma foiled by his adversary Rávana; and I saw these wonders, now standing upon my legs on earth, and then lifting my head above the mountain tops.

47. I saw kála-nemi invading the sky one side, where he stationed the demons, by ousting the gods from their heavenly seats.

48. In one place I found the Asuras foiled by the gods, who preserved the people from their terror; and in another the victorious son of Pandu—Arjuna, protecting the world from the 447oppression of Kauravas, with the aid of lord Vishnu. I saw also the slaughter of millions of men in the Bharatic war.

49. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, how I had been before in another age, and who had been these Pandavas and Kauravas too, that existed before me. (Wheeler in his India dates the Pandavas prior to Ráma).

50. Vasishtha replied:—Ráma! all things are destined to revolve and return, over and over again as they had been before. (In the same manner as the impressions in the mind, recur repeatedly to it every where; and the present state of the world, is no more than a reminiscence of the past ones).

51. As a basket is filled repeatedly with grains of the same kind, or mixed sometimes, with some other sorts in it; so the very same thoughts and ideas, with their self-same or other associations, recur repeatedly in our minds.

52. Our ideas occur to us in the shape of their objects, as often as the waters of the sea run in their course, in the form of waves beating upon the banks; and thus our thoughts of ourselves, yourselves and others, frequently revert to our minds.

53. There never comes any thought of anything, whereof we had no previous idea in the mind; and though some of them seem to appear in a different shape, it is simply owing to our misapprehension of them, as the same sea water seems to show the various shapes of its waves.

54. Again there is a delusion, that presents us many appearances which never come to existence; and it is this which shows us an infinite train of things, coming in and passing and disappearing like magic shows (or máyá) in this illusive world.

55. The same things and others also of different kinds, appear and reappear unto us in this way (either by our reminiscence of them, or by illusion of our minds).

56. Know all creatures, as drops of water in the ocean of the world; and are composed of the period of their existence, their respective occupations, understanding and knowledge; and accompanied by their friends and properties and other surroundings.

57. All beings are born, with every one of these properties 448at their very birth; but some possess them in equal or more or less shares, in comparison with others. (That some are and must be greater (or less) than the rest. Pope).

58. But all beings differ in these respects, according to the different bodies in which they are born; and though some are equal to others, in many of these respects, yet they come to vary in them in course of time.

59. Being at last harassed in their different pursuits, all beings attain either to higher or lower states in their destined times; and then being shackled to the prison houses of their bodies, they have to pass through endless varieties of births in various forms. Thus the drops of living beings, have to roll about in the whirlpool of the vast ocean of worldly life, for an indefinite period of time, which no body can gainsay or count.

Vasishtha continued:—Afterwards as I directed my attention to my own body for a while; I saw the undecaying and infinite spirit of God (lit.—the vacuous Intellect, surrounding every part of my material frame).

2. Pondering deeply, I saw the world was seated within my heart, and shooting forth therein; as the grains put out their sprouts in a granary, by help of the rain water dropping into it.

3. I beheld the formal world, with all its sentient as well as insensitive beings, rising out of the formless heart, resembling the shapeless embryo of the seed (i.e. the plastic nature from the amorphous spirit), by moisture of the ground.

4. As the beauty of the visibles appears to view, on one’s coming to sense after his sleep; so it is the intellect only which gives sensation to one, who is waking or just risen from his sleep: (and so it was the intellectual wakefulness of Vasishtha and other inspired men, which made them sensible of outward objects, even in the trance of their meditation). (Samádhi).

5. So there is conception of creation in the self-same soul, ere its formation or bringing into action; and the forms of creations are contained in the vacuum of the heart, and in no other separate vacuity whatever.

6. Ráma rejoined:—Sir, your assertion of the vacuum of the heart, made me take it in the sense of infinite space of vacuity, which contains the whole creation; but please to explain to me more clearly, what you mean by your intellectual vacuum, which you say, is the source of the world. (i.e. whether the heart or mind or infinite space, is the cause and container of the cosmos).

4507. Vasishtha replied:—Hear Ráma, how I thought myself once in my meditation, as the self-born Swayambhu or the god who is born of himself, in whom subsisted the whole, and there was nothing born but by and from him; and how I believed the unreal as real in my revelry, or as an air-built-castle in my dreaming.

8. As I had been looking before, at that sight of the great kalpa-dissolution, with my aeriform spiritual body; I found and felt the other part of my person (i.e. my material frame), was likewise infused with the same sensibility and consciousness. (The body being the counter part or réchauffé of the mind).

9. As I looked at it for a while, with my spiritual part; I found it as purely aerial, and imbued with a slight consciousness of itself. (So says the Sruti:—In the beginning the spirit became or produced the air with its oscillation).

10. The vacuous Intellect found this elastic substance, to be of such a subtile and rarefied nature, as when you see the external objects in your dream, or remember the objects of your dream upon your waking.

11. This etherial air, having its primary powers of chit and samvid—intellect and conscience, becomes the intellection and consciousness also; then from its power of reflecting (on its existence in space and time), it takes the name of reflection (chittam). Next from its knowledge of itself as air, it becomes the airy egoism, and then it takes the name of buddhi or understanding, for its knowledge of itself as plastic nature, and forgetfulness of its former spirituality. At last it becomes the mind, from its minding many things that it wills or nils.

12. Then from its powers of perception and sensation it becomes the five senses, to which are added their fivefold organs; upon the perversion of the nice mental perceptions to grossness.

13. As a man roused from his sound sleep, is subject to flimsy dreams; so the pure soul losing its purity upon its entrance in the gross body, is subjected to the miseries that are concomitant with it.

14. Then the infinite world; appearing at once and at the 451same time (before the view of the mind and outer sight, both in state of dream and on waking); it is said to be an act of spontaneity by some, and that of consecution by others. (Some texts say: God willed,) and it was (so aikshata, fiatet fit, kunfa káná &c.); while others represent the world to be not the work of a day, but of many consecutive days. (Such as so atapshata—God laboured and rested from his labour).

15. I conceived the whole (space and time), in the minutiae of my mind; and being myself as empty air, thought the material world, to be contained in me in the form of intelligence.

16. As it is the nature of vacuum, to give rise to the current air; so it is natural to the mind, to assign a form and figure to all its ideas, by the power of its imagination (whence it is called the creative mind, or inventive imagination, that gives a shape to airy nothing).

17. Whatever imaginary form, our imagination gives to a thing at first, there is no power in the mind to remove it any more from it.

18. Hence I believed myself as a minute atom, although I knew my soul to be beyond all bounds; and because I had the power of thinking, I thought myself as the thinking mind, and no more. (So one knowing himself as the body, at once knows him to be a corporeal being only; as the lion thinking himself as a sheep, bleated and grazed as one of them. So we forget our higher nature).

19. Then with my subtile body of pure intelligence, I thought myself as a spark of fire; and by thinking so for a long time, I became at length of the form of a gross body. (The angels are to be of a bright and fiery body (muri and atashi), and the human body to be of a gross and earthy substance (khaki and martya)).

20. I then felt a desire of seeing all what existed about me, and had the power of sight immediately supplied to my gross body. (Just as a child coming out as blind, deaf and dumb from the embryo, has the powers of seeing and hearing and crying, immediately furnished to it afterwards) (so says Adam 452in Milton, “As I came to life, I looked at this light and beautiful frame”).

21. In this manner I felt other desires, and had their corresponding senses and organs given to me; and I will tell you now, O race of Raghu, their names and functions and objects, as they are known amongst you.

22. The two holes of my face through which I began to see, are termed the two eyes with their function of sight; and having for their objects the visible phenomena of nature.

23. When I see that I call time, and as I see that is called its manner; the place where I see an object is simple vacuity, and the duration of the sight is governed by destiny.

24. The place where I am situated, is said to be my location; and when I think or affirm any thing, that I say the present time; and as long I feel the twinkling of my intellect, so long do I know myself as the intellectual cause of my action.

25. When I see anything, I have its perception in me; and I have my conviction also, that what I behold with my two eyes, are not empty vacuity, but of a substantial nature.

26. The organs wherewith I saw and felt the world in me, are these two eyes—the keys to the visible world; then I felt the desire of hearing, what was going about me, and it was my own soul, which prompted this desire in me. (Sensible perceptions are the natural appetites of the soul, and finding their way through the external organs of sense).

27. I then heard a swelling sound, as that of a sonorous conch; and reaching to me through the air, where it is naturally born and through which it passes.

28. The organs by which I heard the sound, are these two ears of mine; it is born by the air to ear, and then enters the earholes with a continuous hissing.

29. I then felt in me the desire of feeling, and the organ whereby I came to it, is called the touch or skin.

30. Next I came to know the medium, whereby I had the sensation of touch in my body; and found it was the air which conveyed that sense to me (i.e. from the object to the skin).

45331. As I remained sensible of the property of feeling or touch in me, I felt the desire of taste within myself, and had there upon the organ of tasting given to me.

32. Then my vacuous self, contracted the property of smelling, by the air of its breath, I had thereby the sense of smelling given to me, through the organs of my nostrils. Being thus furnished with all the organs of sense, I found myself to be imperfect still (because none of them could lead me to the knowledge of the truth).

33. Being thus confined in the net of my senses, I found my sensual appetite increasing fast in me (and the possession of sensuous perceptions (vidah), tending to no conscientious verity samvidah).

34. The bodily sensations of sound, form, taste, touch and smell, are all formless and untrue, and though appear to be actual and true; yet they are really false and untrue.

35. As I remained ensnared in the net of my senses, and considered myself a sensible being; I felt my egoism in me, as that with which I am now addressing to you.

36. The sense of egoism growing strong and compact, takes the name of the understanding; and this being considered and mature, comes to be designated as the mind.

37. Being possessed of my eternal senses, I pass for a sentient being; and having my spiritual body and soul, I pass as an intellectual being in a vacuous form.

38. I am more rare and vacuous than the air itself, and am as the empty void itself; I am devoid of all shapes and figures, and am irrepressible in my nature.

39. As I remained at that spot, with this conviction of myself; I found myself endowed with a body, and it was as I took me to be.

40. With this belief (of my being an embodied being), I began to utter sounds; and these sounds were as void, as those of man, dreaming himself as flying in the air in his sleep.

41. This was the sound of a new born babe, uttering the sacred syllable om at first; and thence it has become the custom to pronounce this word, in the beginning of sacred hymn.

45442. Then I uttered some words as those of a sleeping person, and these words are called the vyahrites, which are now used in the Gáyatrí hymn.

43. Methought I now became as Brahmá, the author and lord of creation; and then with my mental part or mind, I thought of the creation in my imagination.

44. Finding myself so as containing the mundane system within me, I thought I was not a created being at all; because I saw the worlds in my own body, and naught besides without it.

45. Thus the world being produced, within this mind of mine; I turned to look minutely into it, and found there was nothing in reality, except an empty void.

46. So it is with all these worlds that you see, which are mere void, and no other than your imagination of them; and there is no reality whatever, in the existence of this earth and all other things that you see.

47. The worlds appear as the waters of the mirage, before the sight and to the knowledge of our consciousness; there is nothing outside the mind, and the mind sees every thing, in the pure vacuity of the divine mind.

48. There is no water in the sandy desert, and yet the mind thinks it sees it there; so the deluded sight of our understanding, sees the baseless objects of delusion, in the burning and barren waste of infinite void.

49. Thus there is no world in reality in the divine spirit, and yet the erring mind of man, sees it erroneously to be situated therein; it is all owing to the delusion of human understanding, which naturally leads us to groundless errors and fallacies. (Errors in the mind breed errors in thoughts).

50. The unreal appears, as the real extended world to the mind; in the same manner as the imaginary utopia appears before it, and as a city is seen in the dream of a sleeping man.

51. As one knows nothing of the dream of another sleeping by his side, without being able to penetrate into his mind; while the yogi sees it clearly, by his power of prying into the hearts of others.

45552. So doth one know this world, who can penetrate into the mundane stone; where it represented as the reflexion of some thing in a mirror, which in reality is nothing at all.

53. And although the world appears, as an elemental substance to the naked eye; yet when it is observed in its true light, it disappears like the Otaria of the polar region, which is hidden under ever lasting darkness.

54. He who views the creation with his spiritual body, and with his eyes of discernment, finds it full of the immaculate spirit of God, which comprehends and pervades throughout the whole.

55. The percipient or judicious eye, sees the extinction or absence of the world every where; because they have the presence of the Divine Spirit alone before their view, and naught that is not the spirit and therefore nothing.

56. Whatever is perceived by the clear-sighted (yogi), by his conclusive reasoning; that transcendent truth is hard to be seen by the triple-eyed Siva, or even by the god Indra with his thousand eyes.

57. But as I looked into the vacuity of the sky, replete with its myriads of luminous bodies; so I beheld the earth full with the variety of its productions; and then I began to reflect in myself, that I was the lord of all below (and even as Brahmá himself).

58. Then thinking myself as the master of the earth, I became amalgamated with the earth as if it were one with myself; and having forsaken my vacuous intellectual body, I thought myself as the sovereign of the whole.

59. Believing myself as the support and container of this earth, I penetrated deep into its bowels; and thought all its hidden mines were parts of myself, so I took whatever it contained both below and above it to be self same with me.

60. Being thus warped in the form of the earth, I became changed to all its forests and woods, which grew as hairs on its body. My bowels were full of jewels and gems, and my back was decorated by many a city and town.

61. I was full of villages and valleys, of hills and dales, and 456of infernal regions and caverns; I thought I was the great mountain chain, and connected the seas and their islands on either side.

62. The grassy verdure was the hairy cover of my body, and the scattered hills as pimples on it; and the great mountain tops, were as the crests of my coronet, or as the hundred heads of the infernal snake (Vásuki).

63. This earth which was freely enjoined by all living beings, came to be parcelled by men and at last oppressed by belligerent kings, and worsted by their lines of fighting elephants.

64. The great mountains of Imaus, Vindhya and Sumeru, had all their tops decorated with the falling streams of Ganges and others, sparkling as their pearly necklaces.

65. The caves and forests, the seas and their shores, furnished it with beautiful scenes; and the desert and marsh lands, supplied it with clean linen garments.

66. The ancient waters of the deluge, have receded to their basins, and left the pure inland reservoirs, decorated by flowery banks, and perfumed by the odorous dust of falling flowers.

67. The earth is ploughed daily by bullocks, and sown in the dewy and cold season; it is heated by the solar heat, and moistened by rain water.

68. The wide level land or plain, is its broad breast; the lotus-lakes its eyes, the white and black clouds are its turbans, and the canopy of heaven is its dwelling.

69. The great hollow under the polar mountain, forms its wide open mouth; and the breathing of animated nature, makes the breath of its life.

70. It is surrounded all about, and filled in its inside, by beings of various kinds; it is peopled by the devas, demons and men on the outside, and inhabited by worms and insects in its inner parts.

71. It is infested in the organic poles and cells of its body, by snakes, Asuras and reptiles; and peopled in all its oceans and seas, with aquatic animals of various kinds.

45772. It is filled in all its various parts with animal, vegetable and mineral substances of infinite varieties; and it is plenteous with provisions for the sustenance of all sorts of beings.

Vasishtha related:—Hear ye men, what I conceived afterwards in my consciousness, as I had been looking in my form of the earth, and considered the rivers running in my body.

2. I beheld in one place a number of women, lamenting loudly on the death of some body; and saw also the great rejoicing of certain females, on the occasion of their festive mirth.

3. I saw a direful dearth and famine in one place, with the rapine and plunder of the people; and I beheld the profusion of plenty in another, and the joy and friendliness of its people.

4. In one place I saw a great fire, burning down every thing before me; and in another a great flood deluging over the land, and drowning its cities and towns, in one common ruin.

5. I beheld a busy body of soldiers somewhere, plundering a city and carrying away their booty; and I observed the fierce raxas and goblins, bent on afflicting and oppressing the people.

6. I saw the beds of waters brimful with water, and running out to water and fertilize the land all around; I saw also masses of clouds issuing from mountain caverns, and tossed and borne by the winds afar and aloft in the sky (to pour their rains in other quarters).

7. I saw the out pourings of rain-water, the uprising of verdure, and the land smiling with plenty; and I felt within myself a delight, which made the hairs on my body stand upright; (as if they were the rising shoots of plants growing out of my body).

8. I saw also many places, having hills, forests and habitations of men; and also deep and dreadful dens, with wild 459beasts, bees in them. Here there were no foot prints of human beings, who avoid those places, for fear of falling in those diresome caves.

9. Some places I saw, where warfares were waged between hostile hosts, and some others also, where the armies were sitting at ease, and gladsome conversation with one another.

10. I saw some places full of forests, and others of barren deserts with tornadoes howling in them; and I saw marshy grounds, with repeated cultivations and crops in them.

11. I saw clear and purling lakes, frequented by cranes and herons, and smiling with blooming lotuses in them; and I saw likewise barren deserts, with heaps and piles of grey dust, collected together by the blowing breezes.

12. I saw some places where the rivers were running, and rolling and gurgling in their sport; and at others, the grounds were moistened and sown, and shooting forth in germs and sprouts.

13. I saw also in many places, little insects and worms moving slowly in the ground; and appeared to me to be crying out, O sage, save us from this miserable state.

14. I saw the big banian tree, rooting its surrounding branches in the ground; and I saw many parasite plants growing on and about these rooted branches.

15. Huge trees were growing in some places, upon rocks and mountain tops; and these embracing one another with their branching arms, were shaking like the billows of the sea.

16. I saw the raging sun darting his drying rays, and drawing the moisture of the shady trees; and leaving them to stand with their dried trunks, and their withered and leafless branches.

17. I saw the big elephants dwelling on the summits of mountains, piercing the sturdy oaks with the strokes of their tusks, which like the bolts of Indra, broke down and felled and hurted them with hideous noise below.

18. There grew in some places, many a tender sprout, of plants, shooting forth with joy as the green blades of grass; or as the erect hairs of horripilation rising on the bodies of saints, enrapt in their reveries and sitting with their closed eyelids.

46019. I saw the resorts of flies and leeches and gnats in the dirt, and of bees and black bees on the petals of lotus flowers; and I saw big elephants destroying the lotus bushes, as the plough-share overturns the furrows of earth.

20. I saw the excess of cold, when all living beings were shrivelled and withered in their bodies; when the waters were congealed to stone, and the keen and cold blasts chilled the blood of men.

21. I have seen swarms of weak insects, to be crushed to death under the feet of men; and many diving and swimming and skimming in the waters below, and others to be born and growing therein.

22. I have seen how the water enters in the seeds, and moistens them in the rainy season; and these put forth their hairy shoots on the out side, which grow to plants in the open air.

23. I smile with the smiling lotuses, when they are slightly shaken in their beds by the gentle winds of heaven; and I parade with the gliding of rivers, to the ocean of eternity for final extinction. (i.e. As the river bearing all things is lost in the ocean; so doth the human body become extinct in the Deity, with the world that it contains within itself).

Ráma said:—Tell me sir, whether in your curiosity to observe the mutations of earthly things and affairs, you beheld them in their earthly shapes with your corporeal body; or saw them in their ideal forms, in the imagination of your mind.

2. Vasishtha replied:—It was in my mind, that I thought myself to have become the great earth; and all what I saw as visible, being but simple conceptions of the mind, could not possibly have a material form.

3. It is impossible for the surface of the earth to exist, without its conception in the mind; whatever thou knowest either as real or unreal, know them all as the work of your mind.

4. I am the pure vacuous Intellect, and it is that which is the essence of my soul; it is the expansion of this intellectual soul, which is called its will also. (This will is the eternal predicate of the Divine Spirit).

5. It is this which becomes the mind and the creative power Brahmá, and takes the form of the world and this earth also; and this vacuous mind being composed of its desires, assumes to itself whatever form it likes to take.

6. It was thus that my mind stretched itself at that time, and put forth its desires in all those forms as it liked: and from its habitual capacity of containing every thing, it evolved itself in the shape of the wide-stretched earth.

7. Hence the sphere of the earth, is no other than the evolution of the selfsame mind; it is but an unintelligent counterpart of the intelligent intellect.

4628. Being thus a void in itself, it continues to remain forever as such in the infinite void; but by being considered as a solid substance by the ignorant, they have altogether forgotten its intellectual nature.

9. The knowledge that this globe of earth is stable, solid and extended, is as false as the general impression of blueness in the clear and vacuous firmament, and this is the effect of a deeprooted bias in the minds of men.

10. It is clear from this argument, that there is no such thing as the stable earth; it is of the same ideal form as it was conceived in the mind, at the first creation of the world. (The primary idea of creation is of its subtile and not gross form. “And the earth was without form and void”).

11. As the city is situated in a dream, and the intellect resides in vacuity; so the Divine Intellect dwelt in the form of the creation in the very vacuum.

12. Know the three worlds in their intellectual light, likening the aerial palace of puerile fancy and hobby; and know this earth and all visible appearances, to be the creatures of imagination.

13. The world is the ectype city or reproduction of the intellectual Spirit of God, and not a different kind of production of the Divine Will; it is in fact no real or positive existence at all, although it may appear as solid and substantial to the ignorant.

14. The unreal visible world is known only to the ignorant, who are unacquainted with its real intellectual nature, and it is he only that is acquainted with its true nature, who knows well what I have been preaching to you ere long.

15. All this is the intellection of the Divine Intellect, and manifestation of the supreme self in itself; the visible world which appears as some thing other than the supreme soul, is inherent in the very soul. (All this being selfsame with the Divine spirit, it is exempt from the imputation of its duality or unity with it).

16. As a gemming stone exhibits of itself, the various hues 463of white, yellow and others, without their being infused therein; so the Divine Intellect shows this creation in all its various aspects within its vacuous sphere.

17. Whereas the spirit neither does anything, nor changes its nature (on account of its immutability); therefore this earth is neither a mental nor material production of it (but a phantasmagoria only).

18. The vacuous Intellect appears as the surface of the earth, but it is of itself without any depth or breadth, and transparent in its surface (wherefore it is not the fathomable or opaque body of the earth).

19. It is of its own nature, that it shows itself as anything wherever it is situated; and though it is as clear as the open air, yet it appears as the earth, by its universal inherence into and pervasion over all things.

20. This terraqueous orb, appearing as something other than the Great Intellect; appears in the very form as it pictured in the mind, like the shapes of things appearing in our dream (agreeably to their forms preserved in our memory).

21. The world subsists in the vacuous spirit, and the Divine Spirit being vacuous also, there is no difference in them, it is the ignorant soul which makes the difference, but it vanishes at once before the intelligent soul.

22. All material beings, that have been or are to be in the three past, present and future times; are mere errors of vision, like the false appearances in our dreams, and the air built cities of imagination.

23. The beings that are existent at present, and such as are to come into existence in future; and the earth itself, are of the same nature of an universal fallacy, in lieu of the Divine spirit pervading the whole.

24. I myself and all others that are included in this world, have the visible perceptions of all things as they are preserved in our reminiscence.

25. Know Ráma the Divine Intellect only, as the supreme soul and undecaying essence of all existence; and this it is that 464sustains the whole in its person, without forsaking its spirituality. Knowing therefore the whole world as contained in thyself, which is not different from the supreme soul, thou shalt be exempt and liberated from all.

Ráma Said:—Tell me Sir, what other things (lit.—worlds), you saw on the surface of the earth.

2. Vasishtha replied:—With my waking soul, I thought as it were in my sleep that I was assimilated to land, and saw many groups of lands scattered this earth: I saw them in my mysterious vision, and then reflected them in my mind.

3. As I beheld those groups of lands, lying every where before my intellectual vision; the outer world receded from my sight, all dualities were quite lost and hushed in my tranquil soul.

4. I saw those groups as so many spots, lying in the expanded spirit of Brahma; which was a perfect void, quite calm, and inert to all agitations.

5. I saw every where large tracts, as great and solid as the earth itself: but found them in reality to be nothing more, than the empty dreams appearing in the vacant mind.

6. Here there was no diversity nor uniformity neither, nor was there any entity or nihility either; there was no sense of my egoism also, but all blinded in an indefinite void.

7. And though I conceived myself to be something in existence; yet I perceived it had no personality of its own, and its entity depended on that of one sole Brahma, who is increate and ever undecaying (or never decays).

8. Thus these sights being as appearances of dream, in the empty space of the intellect; it is not known how and in what form they were situated in the divine mind, before they were exhibited in creation.

9. Now as I saw those tracts of land in the form of so many 466worlds, so I beheld large basins of water also (surrounding them on all sides).

10. Then my active spirit, became as the inert element of water in many a great (or reservoirs of water); and these are called as seas and oceans, in which lay and played with a gurgling noise.

11. These waters are incessantly gliding on, bearing upon them loads of grass and straw, and bushes of plants and shrubs and trunks of trees; which float upon them, as the bugs and leeches crawl and creep on your body.

12. These are borne by the circling waters, like small insects and worms into the crevices of waves; and thence hurled into the womb of the whirlpools, whose depth is beyond all comparison.

13. The currents of the waters were gliding, with the leaves and fruits of trees in their mouths; while the floating creepers and branches, described the encircling necklaces about them.

14. Again the drinkable water being taken by the mouth, goes into the hearts of living beings; and produces different effects on the humours of animal bodies, according to their properties at different seasons.

15. Again it is this water which descends in the form of dews, sleeps on leafy beds in the shape of icicles, and shines under the (moon-beams on all sides), all the time and without interruption.

16. It runs with irresistible course to many a lake and brook as its home, it flows in the currents of rivers, unless it is stopped by some bridge or embankment.

17. The waters of the sea like ignorant men on earth, ran up and down in search of the proper course; but failing to find the same, they tumbled and turned about in eddies and whirlpools (of doubts).

18. I saw the water on the mountain-top, which thought it rested on high, yet it fell owing to its restlessness in the form of a water-fall in the cataract, where it was dashed to a thousand splashes. (So I found myself to be hurled down by my sins, from 467my high position in heaven, to a thousand devious paths on earth).

19. I saw the water rising from the earth in the form of vapour on high, and then mixing with the blue ocean of the azure sky, or appearing as blue sapphires among the twinkling stars of heaven.

20. I saw the waters ascending and riding on the back of the clouds, and there joining with the lightnings as their hidden consorts, shining as the cerulean god Vishnu, mounted on the back of the hoary serpent—Vásuki.

21. I found this water both in the atomic and elementary creations, as well as in all gross bodies on earth, and I found it lying unperceived in the very grain of all things, as the omnipresent Brahma inheres in all substances.

22. This element resides in the tongue; which perceives the flavour of things from their particles, and conveys the sense to the mind. Hence I ween the feeling of taste relates to the soul and its perception, and not to the sensibility of the body. (The Divine Spirit is said to be flavour—rasovaitat, and it is the human soul only that perceives it).

23. I did not taste this spiritual savour, by means of the body or any of its organs; it is felt in the inner soul only, and not by the perceptions of the mind, which are misleading and therefore false and unreal.

24. There is this flavour scattered on all sides, in the sapidity of the season’s fruits and flowers; I have tasted them all and left the flowers to be sucked by the bees and butterflies.

25. Again the sentient soul abides in the form of this liquid, in the bodies and limbs of all the fourteen kinds of living bodies (in some of which it appears in the form of red hot blood).

26. It assumes the form of the showers of rain, and mounts on the back of the driving winds; and then it fills the whole atmosphere, with a sweet aromatic fragrance. (This sweet scent is called in Bengali সেঁদোগন্ধ, which is a corruption of স্বাডু swádu or sweet).

27. Ráma! remaining in that state of my sublimated abstraction, 468I perceived the particulars of the world in each individual and particular particle.

28. Remaining unknown to and unseen by any body, I perceived the properties of all things, as I marked those of water, with this my sensible body, appearing as gross matter.

29. Thus I saw thousands of worlds, and the repeated rising and fallings, like the leaves of plantain trees (or rather the barks of those trees, which grow upon and envelop one another).

30. Thus did this material world, appear to me in its immaterial form; as a creation of the Intellect, and presenting a pure and vacuous aspect.

31. The phenomenal is nothing, and it is its mental perception only that we have all of this world; and this also vanishes into nothing, when we know this all to be a mere void.

Vasishtha related:—I then believed myself as identical with light, and beheld its various aspects in the luminous bodies of the sun and moon, in the planets and stars, and in fire and all shining objects.

2. This light has by its own excellence, and it becomes the light of the universe; it is as brilliant as the mighty monarch, before whose all surveying sight, the thievish darkness of night flies at a distance.

3. This light like a good prince, takes upon it the likeness of lamps, and reigns in the hearts of families and houses in a thousand shapes (of chandeliers &c.), to drive off the thievish night, and restore the properties of all before their sight.

4. Being glad to lighten all peoples (worlds), it enkindles the orbs of the sun, moon and stars; who with their rays and beams, dispel afar the shade of night from the face of the skies.

5. It impoverishes the darkness, that bereaves all beings from their view of the beauties of nature, and dispenses the useful light, which brings all to the sight of the visibles.

6. It employs the axe at the root of the nigrescent arbour of night, and adds a purity and price to all things; it is this that gives value to all metals minerals, and makes them so dear to mankind.

7. It shows to view all sorts of colours, as white, red, black and others. It is light that is the cause of colours as the parent is the cause of the progeny.

8. This light is in great favour, with every one upon this earth; wherefore it is protected with great fondness in all houses, 470as they foster their children in them, by means of earthen walls (in order to preserve them from inclement winds).

9. I beheld a slight light, even in the darkness of the infernal region (i.e. the dismal hell fire); and I saw it partly in the particles of dust, which compose all bodies on the surface of the earth.

10. I saw light, which is the first and best of the works of God, to be eternally present in the abodes of the celestial; and observed it as the lamp of the mansion of this world, which was the great deep of waters and darkness before. (“And darkness reigned over the face of the deep”).

11. Light is the mirror of the celestial nymphs of all the quarters of heaven (i.e. it shows and points out the face of the heavens to us); it scatters like the winds the dust of frost from before the face of night, it is the essence of the luminous bodies of the sun, moon and fire, and the cause of the red and bright hue of the face of heaven.

12. It discloses the cornfields to day-light, and ripens their corn, by dispelling darkness from the face of the earth. It washes also the glassy bowl of heaven, and glitters in the dewy waters upon its face.

13. It is by reason of its giving existence to, and bringing to view all things in the world, it is said to be the younger brother, of the transcendent light of divine Intellect. (The gross light is the reflexion of holy light).

14. It is the light of the sun, which is the reviver of the lotus bed of the actions of mortals; and which is the life of living beings on earth; it is the source of our sight of the forms of all things, as the intellect is that of all our thoughts and perceptions.

15. Light decorates the face of the sky, with numberless gems of shining stars; and it is the solar light that makes the divisions of days, months, years and seasons in the course of time, and makes them appear as the passing waves in the ocean of eternity.

16. This immense universe bears the appearance of the 471boundless ocean, wherein the sun and moon are revolving as the rolling waves, over the scum of this muddy earth.

17. Light is the brilliancy of gold, and the colour of all metals; it is the glitter of glass and gems, the flash of lightnings, and the vigour of men in general.

18. It is moon shine in the nocturnal orb, and the glittering of glancing eye lids; it is the brightness of a smiling countenance, and the sweetness of tender and affectionate looks.

19. It gives significancy to the gestures, of the face, arms, eyes and frownings of the eye-brows; and it adds a blush to maiden faces, from the sense of their invincibleness. (Laughter spring from pride).

20. The heat of this light, makes the mighty to spurn the world as a straw, and break the head of the enemy with a slap; and strike the heart of the lion with awe.

21. It is this heat which makes the hardy and bold combatants, engage in mutual fighting with drawn and jangling swords; and clad in armours clanking on their bodies.

22. It gives the gods their antagonism against the demons, and makes the demoniac races also antagonistic to the gods; it gives vigour to all beings, and causes the growth of the vegetable kingdom.

23. All these appeared to me as the mirage in a desert, and I beheld them as phantasms in my mind; and this scene of the world was situated in the womb of vacuum, and I beheld these sceneries, O bright eyed Ráma, all these sceneries seem to resemble the appearances of a phantasmagoria to me.

24. I then beheld the glorious sun above, stretching his golden rays to all the ten sides of the universe, and himself flying as the phoenix in the sky; and I saw also this speck of the earth, resembling a villa beset by the walls of its mountains.

25. The sun turned about and lent his beams to the moon, and to the submarine fire beneath the dark blue ocean; and stood himself as the great lamp of the world on the stand of the meridian, to give the light of the day.

47226. I saw the moon rising as the face of the sky, with a lake of cooling and sweet nectar in it; the moonlight appearing as the soft and sweet smile of the sable goddess of night, and as the glow of the nightly stars.

27. The moon is the comparison of all beautiful objects in the world, and is the most beloved object at night, of females, and of the blue lotus, and companion of the vesper or evening star.

28. I beheld the twinkling stars likening to the clusters of flowers in the arbour of the skies, and delighting the eyes and faces (of their spectator); and they appeared to me as flocks of butterflies, flying in the fair field of the firmament.

29. I saw many shining gems washed away by the waters, and tossed about by the waving arms of the ocean;^[3]and I saw many jewels also in the hands of jewellers, and balanced by them in their scales.

30. I looked into the submarine fire lying latent in the sea, and the eddies whirling the silvery shrimps in the whirlpools, I saw the golden rays of the sun, shining as filaments of flowers upon the waters, and I saw also the lightnings flashing in the midst of clouds. (There is a play upon the words abdhi and abda which mean the sea, the eddy, the marine fire, the cloud &c.).

31. I witnessed the auspicious sacrificial fire, blazing with ineffable light; and marked its burning flame, splitting and cracking the sacred wood, with a crackling and clattering noise.

32. I saw the lustre of gold and other metals and minerals, and I found also how they are reduced to ashes by the act of calcination, like learned men overpowered by the clownish ignorant.

33. I observed the brightness of pearls, which gave them a place on the breasts of women in the form of necklaces; 473as also on the necks and chests of men and giants, and of Gandharvas and chiefs of men.

34. I beheld the firefly, with which the beauties adorn their fore heads with bright spots; but which are trod upon on the way by ignorant passers as worthless; hence the value of things depends on their situation and not real worth.

35. I saw the flickering lightning in the unmoving cloud, and the fickle shrimps skimming upon the waters of the calm ocean; I heard also the hoarse noise of whirlpools in the quiet and unsounding main, and marked how restlessness consorted with restive and sedate.

36. Some times I saw the soft petals of flowers, were used as lamps to light the bridal beds in the inner apartments.

37. Being then exhausted as the extinguished lamp, I became as dark as collyrium; and slept silently in my own cell, like a tortoise with its contracted limbs.

38. Being tired with my travel throughout the universe, at the kalpánta end of the world; I remained fixed amidst the dark clouds of heaven, as the elephant of Rudra abides there in company with (his lightning).

39. At the end when the worlds were dissolved, and the waters were absorbed by the submarine fires; I kept myself dancing in the etherial space, which devoid of its waters.

40. Sometimes I was borne on high by the burning fire, with its teeth of the sparks and its flaming arms, and its flying fumes resembling the dishevelled hairs on its head.

41. The conflagration burnt down the straw-built houses before it, and fed upon the animal bodies on its way; and consumed the eight kinds of wood, that are ordained in sacrificial rites.

42. I saw the sparks of fire, emitted by the strokes of hammer, from the red hot iron of blacksmiths, were rising and flying about like golden brickbats, to hit the hammerer.

43. In another place I saw the whole universe, lying invisible for ages in the womb of stony mundane egg.

44. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, how you felt yourself in that 474state of confinement in the stone; and whether it was a state of pleasure or pain, to you and the rest of beings.

45. Vasishtha replied:—As when a man falls into sleep with the dulness of his senses, and has yet his airy intellect fully awake in him; so was that outward insensibility filled with intellectual sensibility. (So a man assimilating himself to Brahma, is full of his internal light and felicity).

46. The great Brahma awakens the soul, when the body lies as insensible as the dull earth; so the sleeping man remaining in his torpid state, has his internal soul full with the divine spirit (which fills it with true intellectual delight sachchidánanda).

47. Because the earthly or corporeal body of man, is verily a falsity and has no reality in it; it appears as visual phantom to the sight of the spectator, but in reality it is one with unchanged spirit of God.

48. Knowing this certain truth, whoso views these all as an undivided whole; sees the quintessence as one essence, and the subjective and the objective as the same (Lit.:—He does not fall into the blunder of the viewer and the view).

49. I then having assimilated myself to the pure spirit of Brahma, viewed all things in and as Brahma, because there is none beside Brahma, that is or can be or do anything from naught.

50. When I viewed all these visibles as manifestation of the self-same Brahma, then I left myself also situated in the state of divinity of Brahma himself.

51. When on the other hand, I reflected myself as combined with the pentuple material elements; I found myself reduced to my dull nature, and was incapable of my intellectual operation of excogitation, and the conception of my higher nature.

52. I thought myself as asleep, notwithstanding my power of intellection (which lay dormant in me); and being thus overtaken by the conception of my sleepy insensibility, how could I cogitate of anything otherwise; which is of a transcendental nature.

53. He whose soul is awakened by knowledge, loses the 475sense of his corporeal body, and raises himself to his átiváhika or spiritual form, by means of his purer understanding.

54. A man having his sentient and spiritual body, either in the form of a minute particle or larger size as one may wish, remains perfectly liberated from the fetters of his body and his bondage in this world.

55. With his intelligent and spiritual body, a man is enabled to enter into the impenetrable heart of a hard stone, or to rise to heaven above or descend to the regions below.

56. Hence, O Ráma, I having then that intelligent and subtile body of mine, did all that I told you, with my essence of infinite understanding.

57. In my entrance into the hard stone, and my passages up and down the high heaven and the nether world, I experienced no difficulty from any side.

58. With my subtile and intelligent body, I passed every where, and felt everything, as I used to do with material body.

59. One going of his own accord in one direction, and wishing to go in another, immediately finds himself even then and there, by means of his spiritual body.

60. Know this spiritual and subtile body, to be no other than your understanding only; and now you can well perceive yourself to be of that imperishable form, by means of your intelligence also.

61. Thinking one’s self as the vacuous Intellect, abiding in the sun and all visible objects; the spiritualist comes to know the existence of his self only, and all else that is beside himself as nothing.

62. But how is it possible to view the visible world as inexistent, to which it is answered that it appears as real as the unreal dream to the sleeping person, but vanishes into nothing upon his waking (scholium). Reliance in the inexistent world, is as the belief of the ignorant man in falsehoods; and this reliance is confirmed by habit, although it is not relied upon by others that know the truth.

63. But this reliance is as vain as the vanity of our desires, and the falsity of our aerial castle building; all which are as 476false as the marks of waves, left on the sea sands; or as the marking of anything with a charcoal, which is neither lasting nor perceptible to any body.

64. We see the woodlands, blooming with full blown flowers and blossoms; but these sights are as deluding, as the sparks of fire, presenting the appearance of a flower garden in fire works.

65. These pyrotechnical works, which are prepared with so much labour; burst on a sudden at the slight touch of fire, and then they are blown away as soon, as the prosperity of sharpers (which is transient).

66. Ráma, I beheld the flourish of the world, to be as false and fleeting, as the appearance of light in the particles of dust; all these appearing as so many things of themselves, are in fact no other than the appearances of hills and cities, in the vacuity of the mind in our dreams at sleep.

Vasishtha continued:—Now in my curiosity to know the world, I thought myself as transformed to the form of the current air; and by degrees extended my essence, all over the infinite extent of the universe.

2. I became a breeze with a desire, to view the beauty of the lovely plants all about me; and to smell the sweetness of the fragrant blossoms of kunda, jessamine as lotuses.

3. I bore about the coolness of the falling rains and snows and dew drops, with a view to restore freshness to the languid limbs of the tired and weary labourer.

4. My spirit in the form of the current winds, bore about the essences of medicinal plants and the fragrance of flowers; and carried away the loads of grass, herbs, creepers and the leaves of plants all around.

5. My spirit travelled as the gentle zephyr, in the auspicious hours of morn and eve; to awaken and lull to sleep the lovely maids; again it takes the tremendous shape of a tornado in tempest, to break down and bear away the rocks.

6. In paradise it is florid, with the reddish dust of mandára flowers; in the mountains it is hoary with hoar frost and snows; and in hell it burns in the infernal fires.

7. In the sea it has a curvilinear motion, with the curling waves and revolving whirlpools; and in heaven it bears aloft and moves the clouds, both to cover and uncover the mirror of moon hid under them.

8. In heaven it has the name of the prabáha air, to hold aloft the starry frame; and guide the course of the starry 478legions and the cars of their commanding generals—the post of Gods.

9. It is accounted as the younger brother of thought, owing to its great velocity; it is formless but moveth over all forms; and though intangible, yet its touch is as delightsome, as the cooling paste of sandal wood.

10. It is hoary old with the hoar frost, it bears on its head; it is youthful with wafting the fragrance of vernal flowers, and it is young when it is quiet and still.

11. Here it roves at large, loaded with the fragrance of the garden of Eden; and there it moves freely bearing the perfumes of the grove of the Gandharva Chitra-ratha, to tired persons and worn out lovers.

12. Though fatigued with its toil, of raising and moving the incessant waves, of the cooling and purifying stream of Ganges; yet it is ever alert to lull the toil of others, being quite forgetful of its own weariness.

13. It gently touches its brides of vernal plants, bending down under the load of their full blown flowers; which are ever shaking their leafy hands, and flitting eyes of fluttering bees, to resist its touch.

14. The fleeting air buried its weariness in its soft bed of clouds; after drinking dew drops exuding from the disc of the moon; and being fanned by the cooling breath of lotuses (growing in lakes of heaven).

15. Like the swiftest steed of Indra, he bears the farina of all flowers to him in heaven; and becomes a compeer with Indra’s elephant, who is giddy with the fragrance of his ichor.

16. Then blew the winds, with the soft breath of the shepherd’s horns; and drove away the clouds like cattle, and blasted the showering rain drops; that served to set down the dust of the earth.

17. It is perfumed with the fragrance of flowers flying in the air, and is the uterine brother of all sounds which proceed from the womb of vacuum (which is the common source of wind 479and sound). It runs in the blood and humours, within the veins and arteries of bodies; and is the mover of the limbs of persons.

18. It dwells within the hearts of human bodies as their life, and is the soul and sole cause of all their vital functions. It is ever on its wing, and being ubiquitous throughout the world, it is acquainted with the secrets of all the works of Brahmá.

19. It is the plunderer of the rich treasure of odours, and the supporter of etherial cities; it is the destroyer of heat and darkness as the moon, and this air is the milky ocean, that produces the fair and cooling moon.

20. It forms the islands (by undulation of waves and collection of sands); and is the preserver of the machine of animal bodies, by means of its conducting the vital airs.

21. It is ever present before us, and yet invisible in itself, like an imaginary palace; or as oil in the pods of palm trees, or fetters on the legs of infuriate elephants.

22. It blows away in a moment, all the mountains at the end of the world; it marks the waves with their curls, and collects the sands of rivers (to large beaches and coasts).

23. It is false in appearance, as water in a cloud of smoke, or a whirlpool in it; it is as invisible as the streams above the firmament, and the lotuses growing in the lakes of the blue etherial sky.

24. It is covered with bits of rotten grass, in its form of the gusts of wind; it opens the lotus blossoms by its gentle breeze, and showers down the rains in its form of sounding blasts.

25. Its body is as a wind instrument at home, and as an elephant in the forest of the sky; it is a friend to the dust of the earth, and a wooer of flowers in woods and gardens.

26. It is ever busy in its several acts, of congealing and drying, of upholding and moving, and of cooling the body and carrying the perfumes; and is incessantly employed in these six fold functions to the end of the world.

27. It is as fleet as light, and adroit in extracting juices as the absorbent heat; and is ever employed in the acts of contraction and distension of the limbs of bodies, at the will of every body.

48028. It passes unobstructed through the avenues, of every part of the city of the body; and by its circulation in the heart, and distribution of the bile and chyle through blood vessels, it preserves the functions of life.

29. It is expert in repairing the losses, of the great citadel of the living body; by removing its excrements and replacing its gastric juices (i.e. the six humours of the body), and the formation of its blood and fat, and the flesh, bones, and skin.

30. I looked through every particle of the body, by means of the circulating air; as I viewed every part of the universe by means of the circumambient air; and it is by means of my vital airs, that I conduct this body of mine.

31. The winds bear innumerable particles on their back, as if they were so many worlds in the air, while in fact there is nothing borne by them, when there is naught but an utter negative vacuity every where.

32. I viewed all bodies including those of the gods, as those of Hari and Brahmá, and the Gandharvas and Vidyádharas; and I saw the bright sun and moon, of fire and Indra and others.

33. I saw the seas and oceans, the islands and mountains, stretching as far as the visible horizon; I beheld also the other worlds, and the natures and actions of their inhabitants.

34. I saw the heaven and earth and the infernal regions also, and marked their peoples and their lives and deaths likewise.

35. So I beheld various kinds of beings, composed of the five elements; and traversed in the form of air, throughout all parts of the universe, as a bee enters the foliage of a lotus flower.

36. In my aerial form, I passed through the bodies of all corporeal beings, which are composed of earth, water, air and fire; I sucked the juice of all animal bodies, and drank the moisture of trees drawn by their roots.

37. I passed over all cold and solid bodies, and the liquid paste of sandal wood; I rested in the cool lunar disk, and lulled myself on beds of snows and ice.

48138. I have tasted the sweets of all season fruits and flowers in the arbours of every part of this earth; I have drunk my fill in the flower-cups of spring; and left the lees and leavings for the beverage of bees.

39. Then I rolled on the high and soft beds of clouds, which are spread out in the wide fields of the firmament; and I slept on soft and downy wings of clouds, as in a place bedded by heaps of butter.

40. I reposed on the petals of flowers, and on the green leaves of trees; and rested on the soft bodies of heavenly nymphs, without any concupiscence on my part.

41. I played with the blossoms of lilies and lotuses, in their beds and bushes; and I joined with the cackling geese and swans in their pleasure lakes.

42. I moved with the course of streams, and with the rippling waters of lakes and rills; and I bore the orb of the earth on my back, and carried about me all her mountains, as hairs upon my body.

43. The wide extending hills and mountains, the lengthening rills falling from them, together with all the seas and oceans, are all as pictures represented in the mirror of my body.

44. All the terrestrials and celestials, that live and move at large upon my body; appear to be moving and flying about me as lice and flies.

45. It is by my favor, that the sun receives the various colours with which he shines; and which he diffuses to the leaves of trees, in the sundry hues of red and black, of white, yellow and green.

46. The earth is situated with the seven seas, surrounding the seven great islands (continents); as so many wristlets are encircled about the wrists of men.

47. I was delighted at the sight of the celestial nymphs, also, as I see with gladness myself within.

48. The earth with its rivers of pure water and its solid hills and rocks, were as the veins and blood, and flesh and bones of my body.

49. I beheld innumerable elephantine clouds, and countless 482suns and moons in the starry frame on the sky; as I see the flights of gnats and flies in the vacuum of my mind.

50. In my minute form of the intellect, I held, O Ráma, the earth with its footstools of the nether regions upon my head (because the vacuous intellect is capable of containing and upholding all things).

51. I remained in my sole vacuous and spiritual state, in all places and things at all times, and as the free agent of myself; and yet without my connection with any thing whatsoever.

52. In this state of my spirituality, I had the knowledge of both the intellectual and material worlds; and of all finite and infinite, visible and invisible and formal as well as formless things.

53. I beheld in my own spirit, a thousand worlds and mountains and seas; and they appeared as carved statues and engravings in the vacuous tablet of my mind.

54. I bore in my spiritual body, many occult and visible worlds; and they showed themselves as clearly to my inmost soul, as if they were the reflexions of real objects in a mirror.

55. So I perceived the four elemental bodies of earth and air, and of fire and water, in my vacuous soul; in same manner as we see the delusive objects of our dream in the vacuity of our intellect.

56. I saw also in that state of my hypnotism, innumerable worlds rising before me in each particle of matter; as it appeared to fly before me in the hollow space of vacuum.

57. I beheld a world in every atom, which was flying in empty air; just as we see the many creations of our dreams, and the many creatures in those dreams.

58. I myself have become the orb of the earth, and the clusters of islands (as their pervading spirit (adhyásikátma); though my spirit never comes in contact with anything at all).

59. With my earthly body, I suck the rain water and the waters of the seas; in order to supply the moisture of the moisture of trees, on account of their producing the juicy fruits, for the food of living beings.

60. At the time of my coming to pure understanding, and 483the clair-voyance of my intellectual sight; I find the millions of worlds and all worldly things, disappearing from my view and all uniting in One sole unity.

61. This is a miracle of the intellect, and it strikes with wonder in ourselves; that the miracles of the inner mind, manifest themselves as external sights before our eyes. (i.e. The subjective appearing as the objective).

62. I felt it painful to think of the existence of nothing any where; but I found out the truth, that there is nothing in reality except one spiritual substance, which displays all these wonders in itself.

63. There is but One universal soul, which is the ever undecaying cause of all; and produces and lives through out the whole. (This is called the visva rúpa hypostasis of God, as it is expressed by the poet “These as they change, are but the varied God,” and the world is full of Him). And as my soul was awakened to knowledge, I saw this whole in the soul of Brahma.

64. Being awakened to the knowledge of the universal soul, as the all and every where, ubiquitous and all supporting; I became insensible of all objects, and was myself lost in the all subjective unity.

65. It is in the vacuous convexity of the pure divine spirit, that the continuous creations appear to rise in the intellect; but it is the extinction of these, which extinguishes the burning flame (of worldliness) in the mind, and exterminates the knowledge of all these ideal particulars, into that of One infinite and ever existent entity.

Vasishtha continued:—As my mind was turned from the sight of phenomenals, and employed in the meditation of the only One; I found myself to be suddenly transported to my holy cell in the air.

2. There I lost the sight of my own body, and knew not where I was seated; when all of a sudden the sacred person of a siddha or aerial saint, appeared in view, and to be seated before me.

3. He sat in his mood of deep meditation, and was entranced in his thought of the supreme spirit; his appearance was as bright as the sun, and his person was as shining as the flaming fire.

4. He sat quiet and steadily in his posture of padmásana between his two knees and heels; and remained absorbed in meditation, having no motion of his body, nor any thought of anything in his mind.

5. His body was besmeared with ashes, and his head was borne erect upon his shoulders; he sat quiet and quite at ease, with his bright countenance and in sedate posture.

6. The palms of both his hands were lifted up, and were set open below his navel; and their brightness caused his lotiform heart to be as full-blown, as the sun-beam expands the lotuses in lakes.

7. His eyelids were closed, and his eyesight was as weak, as to view all the visibles in one light of whiteness, and they seemed to be as sleepy, as the closing petals of the lotus of the close of the day.

4858. His mind was as calm in all its closets (i.e. thoughts), as the sides of the horizon in their stillness; and his soul was as unperturbed, as the serene sky freed from a tempest (calm after storm).

9. I who did not see my own person, could yet plainly perceive that of the saint thus placed before me; and then I reflected in my mind, with the perspicacity of my discernment.

10. I find this great and perfect siddha or saint in this solitary part of the firmament; and I believe him to be as absorbed in his meditation, as I am at my ease in this lonely spot.

11. It is very likely that this saint, being earnest in his desire of deep meditation, and finding this retired cell of mine most favourable to it, has called here of his own accord.

12. He thought I had cast off my mortal coil, and could not perceive by his deep attention that I had returned to it; so he threw away my dead body as he thought it, and made his residence in that cell of mine.

13. Seeing thus the loss of my body here, I thought of repairing to my own abode (in the constellation of Pleiades सप्तर्षि मण्डलं) and as I was attempting to proceed thereto, I resigned my attachment to my lone cell (which was now held by another).

14. This cell was dilapidated also in time, and there remained an empty void only in lieu of it; and the saint that had taken my place therein, lost his stay also for want of the cell, and fell downward in his meditative mood.

15. Thus that lonely cell was lost to me, together with the loss of my fond desire for it, just as a visionary and imaginary city vanishes with the dream and desire, which presented it to our view.

16. The meditative saint then fell down from it, as the rain falls down from the cloud; and as a spot of cloud is blown away to the winds in empty air, like the disc of the moon traversing in the sky.

17. He felt as a heavenly spirit falls to earth, after fruition of the reward of his meritorious acts; and as a tree falls headlong 486being uprooted from the ground, so he fell down upon the earth.

18. So when wish for stability of our dwelling, with the continuance of our lives; we see on a sudden the termination of both, as it happened to the falling Siddha.

19. Seeing the falling Siddha, I felt a kind concern for him; and in the flight of my mind, came down from heaven in my spiritual form, to that spot on earth where he had fallen.

20. He fell on the wings of the current air, which conveyed him whirling as in a whirlwind, beyond the limits of the seven continents and their seven fold oceans, to a place known as the land of gold and the paradise of the gods.

21. He fell from the sky in his very posture of padmásana as he had been sitting there before; and sat with his head and upper part of the body erect, owing to the ascension or upward motion of the prána and apána breaths that were inhaled by him. (The rising breath like the rope of a pitcher, keeps the body from sinking downward).

22. Though hurled from such height, and carried to such distance; yet he did not wake from the torpor of his samádhi—meditation, (to which he sat fixed and intent); but fell down insensible as a stone, and as lightly as a bale of cotton.

23. I was then much concerned for his sake, and from my great anxiety to waken him; I roared aloud like a cloud from my place in the sky, and showered a flood of rain-water also upon him.

24. I went on darting hail stones, and flashing as lightnings in order to waken him; and I succeeded to bring him to sense, as the clouds rouse the peacock in the rainy season.

25. His body flushed and his eyes opened, as a blooming blossom and full blown flowers; and the drizzling rains enlivened his soul, as the driving rain, gives the lotuses of lakes to bloom.

26. Finding him awake, and seated in my presence, I cast my complacent look upon him; and asked him very politely, about the prosperity of his spiritual concerns.

27. I said, tell me, O great sage, who you are, and where is 487your abode, and what to do; and how is it that you are so insensible of your state, notwithstanding your fall from so great a distance. (It is a pity that men are so insensible of the fall of their heavenly souls to this miserable earth).

28. Being addressed by me in this manner, he looked steadfastly upon me, and then remembering his visit at mine, he replied to me in a voice, as sweet as that of the chátaka—swallow to the sonorous clouds.

29. The sagely siddha said:—You sir, shall have to wait awhile until I can recollect myself and my former state; and then I will relate to you the latter incidents of my life.

30. So saying he fell to the recollection of his past incidents, and then having got them in his remembrance, he related the particulars to me without any reserve, and as if they were the occurrence of his present day.

31. He then spoke to me in a voice, as soft and cooling as the sandal paste and moonbeams; and the words were as blameless and well spoken, as they were pleased to my ears and ravishing of my soul.

32. The siddha said:—I now come to know you sir, and greet you with reverence; and beg you to pardon my intrusion upon you, as it is the nature of the good to forgive the faults of others. (Because to err is human, to forgive divine).

33. Know me, O sage, to have long enjoyed (in one of my former births), the sweets of the garden of paradise in the form of butterfly; as a bee sucks the honey of lotus-flowers in the lake.

34. I fluttered over a running stream, and found it swelling with sounding waves at pleasure; and then seeing it whirling with its horrid whirlpools, I began to reflect with sorrow in my mind (in the following manner).

35. Such is the sight of the troubles in this ocean of the world, which overwhelms me quite in sorrow and grief; and I have become like a parching and plaintive swallow, that wails aloud at a draught of rain water.

36. I find my chief delight to consist in intelligence, and perceive no pleasure in worldly enjoyments, therefore I must 488rely only in my intellectual speculations, and abide without any anxiety, in the unclouded sphere of my spiritual felicity.

37. I see there is no real pleasure here, but what is derived from our sensations of the sensible objects (of figure, sound, taste, touch and smell); I find no lasting delight in these, that I should depend on them.

38. All this is either the vacuity of the intellect, or representations of the intellect itself; when then should I be deluded with these false appearances, as a madman or one of a deluded mind is apt to do.

39. The sensibles are causes of our insensibility as poison, and women are deluders of men and provokers of their passions; all sweets are but gall, and all pleasures are only a sort of pleasing pain.

40. And this body which is subject to sickness and decay, with its mind as fickle as a shrimp fish, is hourly watched upon by inexorable death, as the old crane lurks after the skimming fish for his prey.

41. The frail body being subject to instant extinction, likens a bubble of water in the ocean of eternity; it resembles also the flame of lamp, which is put out in a moment, while it burns vividly before us.

42. What is the life any more than a stream of water, running between its two shores of birth and death; flowing on with the currents of passing joys and griefs, swelling with the waves of incidents, and whirling with the whirlpools of dangers and difficulties?

43. It is muddied with the pleasures of youth, and blanched with the hoary froths of old age; and emits but casually a few bursting bubbles of glee and gladness, which are afloat for and flitting in a moment.

44. It runs with the rapid torrent of custom, sounding with the hoarse noise of current opinions; it is overcast by the roaring clouds of envy and anger, and overflows the earth in its liquid form (of evanescent bodies).

45. The word stream of life, is as pleasing to hear and pleasant to the ear, as the term stream of water is soothing to 489the soul; but its waters are ever boiling with heat of tritápa, and abounding with whirlpools of illusion and avarice, that carry us up and down for ever more.

46. The course of the world is as that of the waters of a river, which bears away the present things on its back, and brings with its current, what was unforeseen and unexpected before. It is thus full with these events.

47. All that was present before us, is lost to and borne away from us, and it is in vain to repine at their loss; and whatever was never thought of before, come to pass upon us, but what reliance can there be in any one of them.

48. All the rivers on earth, have their waters continually passing away, and filling them by turns from their sources; but life which the water of the river of the body, being once gone, is never supplied to it from any source.

49. The vicissitudes of fortune, are incessantly turning like a potter’s wheel, over the destinies of people, and are entailing some person or other every moment, in this ocean of the world.

50. A thousand thieves and enemies of our estate, are constantly wandering about to rob us of our properties, and nothing avails whether we sleep or wake to ward them off.

51. The particles of our lives, are wasting and falling off every moment; and yet it is a wonder that, nobody is aware of the loss of the days of his life, as long as he has but a little while to live.

52. The present day is reckoned as ours, but it is as soon passed as the past ones; and thus ignorant of the flight of days, nobody knows the loss of the duration of his life, until he comes to meet with his death.

53. We have lived long to eat and drink, and to move about from place to place, and to rove in foreign lands and woods; we have felt and seen all sorts of weal and woe; say what more is there that we can expect to have for our share.

54. Having wellknown the pain and pleasure of grief and joy, and experienced their changes and the reverses of fortune, 490I am fully imprest with the idea of the transitoriness of all things, and therefore kept afar from seeking any thing.

55. I have enjoyed all enjoyments, and seen their transitoriness every where; and yet I found no satisfaction with or distaste to anything, nor felt my cool inappetency for them any where.

56. I wandered on the tops of high hills, and roved in the airy regions on the summits of the Meru mountains; I travelled to the cities of many a ruler of men, but met with nothing of any real good to me any where.

57. I saw the same woody trees, the same kind of earthly cities, and the same sort of fleshy animal bodies every where; I found them all frail and transitory, and full of pain and misery as never to be liked.

58. I saw no riches nor friends, no relatives nor enjoyments of life, were able to preserve any one from the clutches of death.

59. Man passes away as soon, as the rain-water glides down the mountain glades; and is carried away by the hand of death as quickly, as a heap of hollow ashes is blown away by the wind.

60. No enjoyment is desirable to me, nor has the gaudiness of prosperity any charm for me; when I find my life to be as transient, as the transitory glance from the side long look of an amorous woman.

61. How and where and whose help shall we seek, when O sage; we see a hundred evils and imminent death hanging every day over our heads. (i.e. Naught can save us from death and distress).

62. Our lives are as frail as falling leaves, upon the withered woods of our bodies; and the moisture which they used to derive from them, is soon dried up and exhausted at the end.

63. I passed my life in vain desires and expectations, and derived nothing therefrom, that is of any intrinsic good or profit to me.

64. My delusion is at last removed from me, and I see it useless to bear the burthen of my body here any longer; I find it 491better to place no reliance in it, than bemean ourselves by our dependence to it.

65. All prosperity is but adversity, owing to its transitory and illusive nature; therefore the wise accounting it as such, place no reliance on the vanities of this world.

66. Men are sometimes led by the directions of the sástras, and at other by their prohibitions also; as the movables are carried up and by the rising and falling waters (i.e. running in right or wrong directions).

67. The poisonous air of worldliness, contaminates the sweet odour of reason in the mind of man; and makes it noxious to the person, as the canker in the bosom of the bud, corrodes the future flowers.

68. The vanities of the world, are as usually taken for realities, as all other unrealities in nature are commonly taken for actualities. (The world is unreal, and all seeming realities are unreal also).

69. Men are moving about with their bodies upon earth, with as much haste as the rivers are running to the seas; thus the great mass of mankind here, are seen to be in pursuit of the sensible objects of their desire.

70. The desires of our hearts run to their objects, with as much speed as the arrow’s fly from the archer’s bow; but they never return to their seat in the heart or bow string, as our ungrateful friends that forsake us in our adversity.

71. Our friends are our enemies, as the blasts of wind that blow us away with their breath; all our relations are our bonds and fetters, and our riches are but causes of our poverty.

72. Our pleasures are (causes of) our pains, and prosperity the source of adversity; all enjoyments are sufferings (as leading to maladies), and all fondness tends at last to distaste and dislike.

73. All prosperity and adversity, tend only to our temporary joy and misery; and our life is but a prologue or prelude to our extinction or quietus (nirvána). All these are the display of our unavoidable delusion.

74. As time glides along on any man, shewing him the 492various sights of joy and misery; the poor creature lives only to see the loss of his friends, and to repine at his hapless and helpless longevity.

75. The enjoyment of pleasures, is as playing with the fangs of a deadly serpent; they kill you no sooner you touch them, and they disappear from your sight, whenever you look after them.

76. The life is spent without any attempt, to attain that perfect state, which is obtained without any pain or toil; while it is employed every day in hardships of acquiring the perishable trifling pleasures.

77. Men who are bound to their desire of carnal enjoyment, are exposed to shame and the contumely of the rich every moment; and are as wild elephants, tied with strong fetters at their feet.

78. Our fortunes and favourites, are not only as frail and fickle, as the transitory waves and bubbles; but they are as pernicious as the fangs of a snake; and who is there so silly enough, as to take his rest under the shadow of the hood of enraged serpent.

79. Granting the objects of desire to be pleasing, and the gifts of prosperity to be very charming; still what are they and this life also any more, than the fickle glances of a mistress’ eyes.

80. Those who enjoy the pleasures of the present time with so much zest; must come to feel them quite insipid at the end, and fall into the hell-pit at last.

81. I take no delight in riches, which are worshipped by the vulgar only; which are ever subject to disputes, earned with labour, kept with great care, and are yet as unstable as the winged winds in air.

82. Fortune which is so favorable for a while, turns to misfortune in a trice; she is very charming to her possessor, but is as fickle in her nature, as the fleeting flash of lightning.

83. Riches like flatterers, are very flattering at first and as long as they last; but they are as fleeting as those deceitful cheats, who mock at us upon their loss.

49384. The blessings of health, wealth and youth, are as evanescent as the fleeting shadow of autumnal clouds; and the enjoyments of sensual pleasures, are pernicious at the end.

85. Say who has remained the same even among the great, to the end of his journey in this world, the lives of men are as fleeting, as the trickling dew drops at the end of the leaves of trees.

86. Our bodies are decaying in time, and our hairs are turning grey with age, and the teeth are falling off; thus all things are worn out in the world, except our desires, which know no decrease or decay.

87. The carnal enjoyments like wild beasts, come to decay in the forest of the body; but the poison plant of our desire which grows in it, is ever on its increase.

88. Our boyhood passes as quickly as our infancy, and our youth passes as soon as our boyish days; and here there is an equal transience, to be seen in both the comparison and the object compared with.

89. Life melts away as quickly, as the water oozes out of the hold of our palms; and like the current of a river, it never returns to its receptacle.

90. The body also passes away as hurriedly, as a hurricane sweeps in the air; and it vanishes even before our sight of it, like a wave or cloud, or as fast as the flame of a lamp.

91. I have found unpleasantness in what I thought to be very pleasant, and found the unsteadiness of what I believed to be steady; I have known the unreality of what I took to be real, and hence have I become distrustful and disgustful of the world.

92. The ease and rest that attend on the soul, upon the cool indifference of the mind; are never to be obtained in any enjoyment, that the upper or nether worlds, can ever afford to any body.

93. I find the pleasurable objects of my senses, are still alluring me to their trap, as a fruit and flower entices the foolish bee to fall upon them.

94. Now after the lapse of a long time, I am quite released 494from my selfish egoism; and my mind has become indifferent to the desire of future rewards and heavenly felicity.

95. I have long found my rest in my solitary bliss of vacuity, and have come here as thyself, and met with this etherial cell. (The aerial cell is a creation of the saint’s imagination).

96. I came to learn afterwards that this cell belonged to thee; but I never thought that thou shalt ever return to it.

97. I saw there a lifeless body, and thought it to be the frame of a siddha or holy saint, who having quitted his mortal coil, has become extinct in his nirvána.

98. This sir, is my narrative as I have related to you; and am seated here as I am, and you can do unto me as you may like.

99. Until a siddha sees all things in his mind, and considers them well in his clear judgment, he is incapable of seeing the past, present and future in his clairvoyance, even though he be as perfect as the nature of the lotus-born Brahmá himself.

Vasishtha continued:—Now as we were at a spot of great extent (beyond the limit of the terraqueous); and as bright as the golden sphere of heaven, I spoke to the Siddha by way of friendship.

2. I said, it is true sir, what you said, that it is the want of due attention, which prevents our comprehensive knowledge of the present, past and future; but it is a defect not only of yours and mine, but of the minds of all mankind in general.

3. I say so from my right knowledge of the defects and fallibility of human nature, or else sir, you would not have to fall from your aerial seat. But pardon me, I am equally fallible also.

4. Rise therefore from this place, and let us repair to aerial abode of the Siddhas, where we were seated before; because one’s own seat is the most genial to man, and self-perfection is the best of all perfections.

5. So saying they both got up, and rose as high as the stars of heaven; and both directed their course in the same way, as an aeronaut, or a stone flung into the air.

6. We then took leave of each other with mutual salutations; and each went to the respective place which was desirable to either of us.

7. I have now related to you fully the whole of this story, whereby you may know, O Ráma, the wonderful occurrences that betide us in this everchangeful world.

8. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, how and with what form of body, thou didst rove about the regions of the Siddhas, when thy mortal frame was reduced to dust.

4969. Vasishtha replied:—Ah! I remember it, and will tell you the particulars, how I wandered throughout these worldly abodes, until I arrived at the city of the Loka-pála deities, and joined with the hosts of Siddhas, traversing in the regions of midway sky.

10. I travelled in the regions of Indra or open firmament, without being seen by any body there; because I was then passing in my spiritual body, eversince I had lost my material frame-work.

11. I had then become, O Ráma, of an aerial form, in which there was neither a receptacle nor recipient, beside the nature of vacuous and intellectual soul.

12. I was then neither the subject or object of perception of persons like yourself, who dwell on sensible objects alone; nor did I make any reckoning of the distance of space or succession of time. (The spiritual yogi has no cognizance of gross material things, nor of the divisions of space and time, which are objects of sensation only).

13. The soul is busy with the thinking principle of the mind, apart from all material objects composed of earth &c.; and is as the meditative mind or ideal man, that meddles with no material substance.

14. It is not pressed nor confined by material things, but is always busy with its cognitions; and it deals with beings in the same manner, as men in sleep do with the objects of their dream (and others with their air-built cities).

15. Know Ráma, this doctrine of intellection by the simile of dreaming, to be quite irrefutable, although it is confuted by others (i.e. the Nyáya philosophers who deny the mental conceptions without previous perceptions); but they are not to be regarded as right. (Since the Veda says, the spirit of God created all from his mind, and not from its past perceptions).

16. As the sleeping man thinks himself to be walking and acting in his dream, without such actions of his being perceived by others (in the same room); so methought I walked before and beheld the aerials without their seeing me.

49717. I beheld all other terrestrial bodies lying manifest before me, but nobody could observe me that was hid from their sight in my spiritual form.

18. Ráma asked:—Sir, if you were invisible to the Gods, owing to your bodiless or vacuous form; how then could you be seen by the Siddha in the Kanaka land, or see others without having eyes of your own?

19. Vasishtha replied:—We spiritual beings view all things by means of our inner knowledge of them; as other people behold the things they are desirous to see, and naught what they had not any desire for. (This desire is said to be satya-sankalpa, or a firm prepossession of any idea in the mind).

20. All men though possest of pure souls, do yet forget their spiritual nature, by their being too deeply engaged in worldly affairs and unspiritual matters.

21. As I had then wished that this person the Siddha, could have a sight of me; so it was according to the wish of mine, that I was observed by him; because every man obtains what he earnestly desires.

22. Men being slack in their purposes, become unsuccessful in their desires; but this person being staunch to his purpose, and never swerving from his pursuit, succeeded in gaining his desired object.

23. But when two persons are engaged in the same pursuit, or one of them is opposed to the views of the other; the attempt of the more arduous is crowned with success, and that of the weaker meets with its failure.

24. Then I travelled through aerial regions of the Lokapála regents of the sky, and passing by the celestial city of the Siddhas in my spiritual body; I beheld these people with manners quite different from my former habits.

25. I then began to observe their strange manners in the etherial space, and being unseen myself by any one there, I saw distinctly every body there, and their mode of life and dealings with amazement.

26. I called them aloud, but they neither heard nor gave 498heed to my voice; and they appeared to me as empty phantoms as the images of our dreams and visions.

27. I tried to lay hold on some of them, but noone could be grasped by my hands; and they evaded my touch, as the ideal images of the human mind.

28. Thus Ráma, I remained as a demoniac pisácha, in the abode of the holy Gods; and thought myself to be transformed to a pisácha spirit in the open air.

29. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, what kind of beings are pisáchas in this world, and what are their natures and forms, and what are their states and occupations also.

30. Vasishtha replied:—I will tell you, Ráma, what sort of beings the pisáchas are in this world; because it is unmannerly on the part of a preacher, not to answer to the interlocutory queries of the audience (though it be a digress from subject).

31. The Pisáchas are a sort of aerial beings, with subtile bodies of theirs (as we see the empty forms of persons in our dreams); they have their hands and feet and other members of the body as thine, and see all things as thou dost.

32. They sometimes assume the form of a shadow to terrify people, and at others enter into their minds in an aerial form, in order to mislead them to error and wicked purposes. (They like devils waylay unwary men, and tempt them to evil).

33. They kill persons, eat their marrow, and suck up the blood of weak bodied people; they lay a siege about the mind, and destroy the vitals and viscera and the strength and lives of men.

34. Some of them are of aerial forms, and some of the form of frost, others as visionary men, as seen in our dreams with airy forms of their bodies. (And they are at liberty to take upon themselves whatever forms they please).

35. Some of them are of the forms of clouds, and others of the nature of winds, some bear illusory bodies, but all of them are possessed of the mind and understanding.

36. They are not of tangible forms to be laid hold by us, or to lay hold on any one else; they are mere empty airy bodies, yet conscious of their own existence.

49937. They are susceptible of feeling the pain and pleasure, occasioned by heat and cold; but they are incapable of the actions of eating, drinking, holding and supporting anything with their spiritual bodies.

38. They are possessed of desire, envy, fear, anger and avarice, and are liable to delusion and illusion also; and are capable of subjection by means of the spell of mantras, charm of drugs and of other rites and practices.

39. It is likewise possible for one at some time or other, to see and secure some one of them by means of incantations, captivating exorcisms and amulets and spirit in chanting invocations.

40. They are all the progeny of the fallen gods, and therefore some of them bear the forms of gods also; while some are of human forms, and others are as serpents and snakes in their appearance.

41. Some are likened to the forms of dogs and jackals, and some are found to inhabit in villages and woods; and there are many that reside in rivers, mud and mire and hell pits.

42. I have thus told you, all about the forms and residences and doings of pisáchas; hear me now relate to you concerning the origin and birth of these beings.

43. Know that there exists forever, an omnipotent power of its own nature; which is the unintelligible Intelligence itself, and known as Brahma the great.

44. Know this as the living soul, which being condensed becomes ego, and it is the condensation of egoism which makes the mind.

45. This divine Mind is styled Brahmá, which the vacuous form of the divine will; which is unsubstantial origin of this unreal world, which is as formless as the hollow mind.

46. So the mind exists as Brahma, whose form is that of the formless vacuum; it is the form of a person seen in our dream, which is an entity without its reality or formal body.

47. It was devoid of any earthly material or elemental form, and existed in an immaterial and spiritual form only; 500for how is it possible for the volitive principle, to have a material body subsisting in empty air?

48. Ráma, as you see the aerial city of your imagination in your mind, so doth the mind of Brahmá imagine itself as the Virinchi (vir incipience) or creator of the world.

49. Whatever one sees in his imagination, he considers it as true for the time; and whatever is the nature and capacity of any being, he knows all others to be of the same sort with himself?

50. Whatever the vacuous soul sees in its empty sphere, the same it knows as true, as the spirit of Brahma and the mind of Brahmá, exhibit this ideal world for reality.

51. Thus the contemplation of the present pageant of the world, as ever existent of itself at all times; strengthens the belief of its reality, as that protracted and romantic dream.

52. So the long meditation of Brahma, in his spiritual form of the creative power; presented to him the notions of multitudes of worlds, and varieties of creations, of which he became the creator. (So the original thought occurring in the mind of any one, confers on him the title of the originator of the same. So says Manu: “Brahmá after long meditation, produced the world from his intellect”).

53. The ideal then being perfected grew compact, and took a tangible form; which was afterwards called the world, with all the many varieties of which it is composed.

54. This Brahmá—the creative mind, was self-same with Brahma the supreme soul; and these two are ever identic with the uncreated soul and body of the universe.

55. These two (i.e. the great Brahma and Brahmá or the Divine spirit and mind), are always one and the same being, as the sky and its vacuity; and they ever abide together in unity, as the wind and its vacillation.

56. The Divine spirit views the phenomenal world, as a phantom and nothing real; just as you see the unreality of a figure of your imagination as real and substantial.

57. This Brahma then displayed himself (under the name 501of Virát), in the form of a material body, consisting of the quintuple elements of earth, water &c., as the five solid and liquid parts of his person. (This is the Hindu Trinity, composed of the soul, mind and material frame, as Pope the poet has expressed it in the words: “Whose body nature is, and God the souls”).

58. As this triple nature of the Deity, is no more than the variation of his will, so it represented itself as the one or other, in its thought only, and not in reality (the substance being but a conception of the mind).

59. Brahmá himself is vacuous intellect, and his will consists in the vacuity of the same; therefore the production and destruction of the world, resemble the rise and fall of figures in the dreaming state of the human mind.

60. As the divine mind of Brahmá is a reality, so its parts or contents are real also; and its acts or productions of the sun, moon and stars, as well as their rays—the Marichis are real also.

61. Thus the existence of the world and all its contents, is called the dominion of the mind; which is only an unsupported vacuum, like the vacuity of the supportless sky on high.

62. As a city seen in dream is inane, and a hill formed in imagination a mere void; so both Brahma and his world are as the transparent firmament, and having no shape or substance of them.

63. So the world is, but a reflexion of the divine intellect; it is ever existent and undecaying, and the belief of the beginning, middle and end of creation, is as false, as the sight of the ends and midspot of skies.

64. Say Ráma, whether you find any gross substance, to grow in the inane space of the mind of yours or mine or any other person; and if you find no such thing there, how can you suppose it to exist in the inanity of the Divine Intellect, and in the vacuity of the universe?

65. Then tell me why and whence the feelings and passions, such as anger and affection, hate and fear, take their rise; all which are of no good to any body, but rather pernicious to many.

50266. In truth I tell thee that these are not created things, and yet they seem to rise and fall of themselves, like our wrong notions of the production and destruction of the world. These are but eternal ideas, and coeternal with the eternal mind of God.

67. The vast extent of infinite void, is full with the translucent water of Divine Intellect; but this being soiled by our imaginary conceits, produces the dirt of false realities.

68. The boundless space of the Divine Intellect, is replete with the vacuous spirit of God; which being the primary productive seed of all, hath produced these multitudes of worlds, scattered about and rolling as stones in the air.

69. There is really no field nor any seed, which is sown there in reality; nor is there any thing which is ever grown or produced therein, but whatever there is, is existent for ever the same; (and the rest is but fiction).

70. Now among the scattered seeds of souls, there were some that grew mature, and put forth in the forms of gods; and those that were of a bright appearance, became as intelligences and saints.

71. Those that were half mature, became as human beings and Nága races; and such as were put forth themselves in the forms of insects, worms and vegetables.

72. Those seeds which are bloated and choked, and become fruitless at the end; these produce the wicked Pisáchas, which are bodiless bodies of empty and aerial forms.

73. It is not that Virinchi (vir incipiens) or Brahmá, made them so of his own accord or will; but they became so according to the desire which they fostered in themselves in their prior existence (which caused their transformations or metamorphoses in the latter ones). (Because the lord is impartial, and makes <not> one more or less than another).

74. All existent beings are as inane, as the inanity of the Intellect in which they exist; and they have all their spiritual bodies, which are quite apart from the material forms in which you behold them.

75. It is by your long habit, that you have contracted the 503knowledge of their materiality; as it has become habitual with us to think ourselves as waking in our dreaming state.

76. It is in the same manner that all living bodies, are accustomed to think of their corporeality; and to live content with their frail and base earthly forms, as the Pisáchas are habituated to pass gladly in their ugly forms.

77. Some men look upon others and know them, as the village people know and deal with their fellow villagers as with themselves; but they resemble the people abiding together as seen in a dream.

78. Again some meet with many men, as in a city constructed in dream (or imagination); but are quite unacquainted with one another, owing to their distant abodes and different nationalities. (So are we unacquainted with the Pisácha race, in this crowded city of the world).

79. In this manner, there are many races of object beings of whom we are utterly ignorant; and such are the Pisáchas, Kumbhandas, Pretas, Yakshas and others.

80. As the waters upon earth, are collected in lowlands only; so do the Pisáchas and goblins dwell in dark places alone.

81. Should a dark Pisácha dwell at bright midday light, upon a sunny shore or open space; it darkens that spot with the gloominess of its appearance.

82. The sun even is not able, to dispel that darkness, nor can any one find out the place, where the dark demon makes his abode; on account of its delusiveness to evade human sight.

83. As the orbs of the sun and moon, and the furnace of burning fire, appear bright before our eyes; so on the contrary the abode of the Pisáchas, is ever obscured by impenetrable darkness, which no light can pierce.

84. The Pisáchas are naturally of a wonderful nature, that vanish like sparks of fire in daylight; and become enkindled in the dark. (The Pisáchas bear analogy to the sons of darkness or fallen angels in the black Tartarian regions).

50485. Now Ráma, I have fully related to you about the origin and nature of the Pisácha race in the course of this dis-course; and then as I had become as one of them, in the regions of the regents of the celestials.

Vasishtha continued:—I then having my inane intellectual body, which was quite free from the composition of the five elements; roved about in the air in the manner of a pisácha ghost (seeing all and seen by none).

2. I was not perceived by the sun and moon, nor by the gods Hari, Hara, Indra and others; and was quite invisible to the siddhas, gandharvas, Kinnaras and Apsaras of heaven.

3. I was astonished to think as any honest person, who is a stranger at the house of another; why the residents of the place did not perceive me, though I advanced towards them and called them to me.

4. I then thought in myself that, as these etherial beings are seekers of truth like ourselves; it is right they should observe me among them in their etherial abode.

5. They then began to look upon me standing before them, and felt astonished at my unthought appearance, as the spectators are startled at the sudden sight of a juggler’s trick or some magic show.

6. Then I managed myself as I ought in the house of the gods, I sat quiet in their presence, and addressed and accosted them without any fear.

7. Those who beheld me standing at the compound at first, and were unacquainted with the particulars (of my sagely character), thought me a mere earthly being, and known as Vasishtha by name.

8. When I was in sun light by the celestials in heaven, they took me for the enlightened Vasishtha, who is well known in the world.

5069. As I was seen afloat in the air by the aerial siddhas, they called me by the name of the aerial Vasishtha.

10. And as I was observed by the holy sages to rise from amidst the waters of the deep; they called me the watery Vasishtha, from my birth in the water.

11. Hence forth I came to be renowned under different appellations, by all these sets of beings; some calling me the earthly Vasishtha, and others naming me the luminous, the aerial and so forth according to their own kind.

12. Then in course of time, my spiritual body assumed a material form, which sprang from within me and of my own will.

13. That spiritual body and this material form of mine, were equally aerial and invisible; because it was in my intellectual mind only, that I perceived the one as well as the other.

14. Thus is my soul the pure intellect, appearing sometimes as vacuum, and at others shining as the clear sky; it is transcendent spirit and without any form, and takes this form for your admonition. (The incorporeal soul enters into the corporeal body for its dealing with others).

15. The liberated living soul is as free as vacuous spirit of Brahma, although it may deal with others in its corporeal body; so also the liberated bodiless soul, remains as free as the great Brahma himself.

16. As for myself I could not attain to Brahmahood, though I practiced the rules for obtaining my liberation; and being unable to attain a better state, I have become the sage Vasishtha as you see before you.

17. Yet I look upon this world in the same light of immateriality, as the sage sees the figure of person in his dream, when it appears to him to have a material form, though it is a formless non-entity in reality.

18. In this manner do the self born god Brahmá and others, and the whole creation at large, present themselves as visions to my view, without their having any entity in reality.

19. Here I am the self same vacuous and aerial Vasishtha, and appearing as a visionary shape before you, I am though 507habituated to believe myself over grown, as you are accustomed to think of the density of the world.

20. All these are but vacuous essences of the self-born Brahmá, and as that deity is no other than the Divine Mind, so is this world no more than a production of that Mind.

21. The appearance of myself, thyself and others, together with that of the whole world, proceeding from our ignorance; is like the apparitions of empty ghosts before deluded boys, and appearing as solid realities to your sight.

22. Being aware of this truth, it is possible for you to grow wise in course of time; and then this delusion of yours is sure to disappear, as our worldly bonds are cut off with the relinquishment of our desires and affections.

23. Our knowledge of the density and intensity of the world, is dissipated by true wisdom; in the same manner as our desire of a dream of gem, is dispelled upon our waking.

24. The sight of the phenomenals vanishes at once from our view, as we arrive to the knowledge of noumenal in time; as our desire of deriving water from a river in the mirage, subsides in our knowledge of the falsity of the view.

25. The perusal of this work of the great Rámáyana, is sure to produce the knowledge of self-liberation in its reader, even during his life time in this world.

26. The man whose mind is addicted to worldly desires, and who thinks its vanities as his real good, leads a life to misery only like those of insects and worms, and is unfit to be born as a human being, notwithstanding all his knowledge of this world and all his holy devotion.

27. The liberated man while he lives, deems the enjoyments of his life, to be no enjoyment at all; but the ignorant person values his temporary enjoyments only, in lieu of his everlasting felicity.

28. By perusal of this Mahárámáyana, there arises in the mind a coldness, resembling a frost falling on spiritual knowledge.

29. Liberation is the cold indifference of the mind, and our confinement consists in the passionateness of our minds and 508hearts; yet the human race is quite averse to the former, and sedulously employed in the acquisition of their temporal welfare only in their foolishness, and to the astonishment of the wise.

30. Here all men are subject to their sense, and addicted to the increase of wealth and family (lit.—wives), to the injury of one another; yet it is possible for them to be happy and wise, if they will but ponder well into the true sense of spiritual sástras.

31. Válmíki says:—After the sage had said these words, the assembly broke with the setting sun and mutual salutations, to perform their evening devotion. They made their ablutions as the sun sank down into the deep, and again repaired to the court with the rising sun at the end of the night.

Vasishtha resumed:—O intelligent Ráma! I have now related to you at length the narrative of the stone, which shows you plainly how all these created things, are situated in the vacuity of the Divine Intellect.

2. And that there exists nothing whatever, at any time or place or in the air; except the One undivided intellect of God, which is situated in itself, as the salt and water are mixed up together (or as One is self same with the other).

3. Know Brahma as the Intellect itself, which presents many sight shows of itself in the dream, which are inseparable from itself. (The manifestation of the unchangeable nature of the Divine Mind as the creation, is no more than its vivarta-rúpa or expansion of itself, as that of our minds in the various imageries seen in the state of our dreaming).

4. God being the universal spirit, and the creation full of particularities, it is not incongruous to the nature of the universal and immutable soul, to contain the endless varieties of particulars in the infinite vacuity of the Divine Intellect, without any variation in itself. (The universal and infinite God, contains the particular and finite world in itself).

5. There is no self born creative power (as Brahmá), nor its creation of the world; which is but a production of the dreaming intellect, and is situated in our consciousness, as the sights of dreams are imprinted in the memory.

6. As the city seen in your dream, is situated intellectually in yourself; so the entire universe is situated in the Divine Intellect, ever since its creation to its annihilation (or as the world without its end).

5107. As there is no difference between gold and the gold mountain of Meru, and between the dreamed city and the mind; so there is no difference whatever, between the intellect and its creation. (Both being of the same kind).

8. There is the intellect only which exists, and not the world of its creations; as the mind is existent without the gold mountain of its dream.

9. As the mind shows itself, in the form of the formless mountain in its dream; so the formless Brahma, manifests itself as the formal world, which is nothing in reality.

10. The Intellect is all this vacuum, which is increate, unbounded and endless; and which is neither produced nor destroyed in thousands of the great makákalpa ages. (i.e. It is both eternal as well as infinite).

11. This intellectual vacuum is the living soul and lord of all, it is the undecaying ego and embraces all the three worlds in itself (as the air comprises all existence in it).

12. The living body becomes a lifeless carcass, without this aeriform intellect; it is neither broken nor burnt with the fragile and burning body, nor is there any place to intercept the vacuous intellect there from.

13. Therefore there is nothing that dies, and naught that ever comes to being; the intellect being the only being in existence, the world is but a manifestation or disclosure of itself to the mind.

14. The intellect alone is the embodied and living soul, and should it ever be supposed to die; then the son would be thought to die also by the death of the father, because the one is but a reproduction of the other. (The text says, the soul of the father is reborn in the son, and if the former should die, the latter must die also).

15. Again the death of one living soul, would entail the wholesale death of all living creatures; and then the earth (nay even the whole world), would be void of all its population. (Because the one universal soul is the soul of all and every individual being).

51116. Therefore, O Ráma, the sole intellectual soul of nobody, has ever died any where upto this time; nor was there ever any country devoid of a living soul in it. (The world is full of life proceeding from the eternal life of God).

17. Knowing hence that I am one with the eternal soul, and the body and its senses are nothing mine own; I know not how I or any one else, can ever die away at any time.

18. He who knows himself to be the purely intellectual soul, and yet ignores it and thinks in himself to be dying as a mortal being; is verily the destroyer of his soul, and casts himself into a sea of troubles and misery.

19. If I am the intellectual soul, undecaying and everlasting, and as transparent as the open air; say then what is life or death to me, and what means my happiness or misery in any state.

20. Being the vacuous and intelligent soul, I have no concern with my body; and any one who being conscious of it, forgets to believe himself as such, is verily a destroyer of his soul.

21. The foolish man who has lost his consciousness, of being the purely vacuous soul; is deemed a living dead body by the wise (who know the One universal soul to constitute the whole).

22. The knowledge that I am the intelligent soul, and the bodily senses are not essential to me; is what leads me to attain to the state of pure spirituality, which neither death nor misery can deprive me of.

23. He who remains firm, with his reliance in the pure intellectual soul; is never assailed by calamities, but remains <immune> to woes, as a block of stone to a flight of arrows.

24. Those who forget their spiritual nature, and rely their trust in the body; resemble those foolish people, who forsake the gold to lay hold on ashes.

25. The belief that I am the body, its strength and its perceptions, falsifies my faith in these and destroys my reliance in the spirit; but my trust in the spirit, confirms my faith in that by removing my belief in these.

26. The belief that I am the pure vacuous intellect, and 512quite free from birth and death; is sure to dispel all the illusions of feelings and passions and affections afar from me.

27. Those who slight the sight of the vacuous intellect, and view their bodies in the light of the spirit, deserve the name of corporeal beasts, and are receptacles of bodily appetites and passions only.

28. He who knows himself to be infrangible and uninflammable, and as the solid and impregnable stone in his intellect, and not in his unreal body; cares <not> a fig for his death (which destroys the unsubstantial body, but has no power over his indestructible soul).

29. O the delusion! that over spreads the sight of clear-sighted sages; who fear for their total annihilation at the loss of their bodies (which are but component and superficial parts of themselves).

30. When we are firmly settled in our belief, of the indestructible nature of our vacuous intellect; we are led to regard the fire and thunder of the last day of destruction, in the light of a shower of flowers over our heads.

31. That I am the imperishable intellect itself, and naught that is of a perishable nature; therefore the wailing of a man and his friends at the point of death, appears as a ridiculous farce to the wise.

32. That I am my inner intelligence, and not the outer body or its sensation, is a belief which serves as an antidote, against the poison of all griefs and sorrows.

33. That I am the vacuous intelligence, and can never have my quietus or annihilation; and that the world is full of intelligence, is a sober truth which can never admit any doubt or controversy (Lit.—which you can never doubt).

34. Should you suppose yourselves, as any other thing beside the intelligence; then tell me, ye fools, why do you talk of the soul in vain, and what do you mean by the same.

35. Should the intelligent soul be liable to death, then it is dead with the dying people every day; tell me then how ye live and not already dead, with the departed souls of others?

51336. Therefore the intelligent soul, doth neither die nor come to life at any time; it is a false notion of the mind only to think itself to be living and dying, though it never dies (being immortal in its nature).

37. As the intellect thinks in itself, it beholds the same within itself; so it goes on thinking in its habitual mode, and is never destroyed of itself (or) without being ever destroyed in its essence.

38. It sees the world in itself, and is likewise conscious of its freedom; it knows all what is pleasurable or painful, without changing itself from its unalterable nature at any time or place.

39. By the knowledge of its embodiment, it is liable to delusions; but by knowledge of its true nature, it becomes acquainted with its own freedom.

40. There is nothing whatever, that rises or sets (i.e. is produced or destroyed) at any time or place; but every thing is contained in the sole and self-existent intellect, and is displayed in its clear and vacuous sphere.

41. There is nothing, that is either real or unreal in the world; but every thing is taken in the same light, as it is displayed unto one by the intellect.

42. Whatever the intelligent soul thinks in itself in this world, it retains the ideas of the same in the mind. Every thing is judged by one’s consciousness of it, as the same thing is thought as poison by one, what is believed to be nectar by another.

Vasishtha continued:—The world which is but a vision of the supreme soul, and situated in the vacuity of the Divine mind, appears in our consciousness, as the ectype of Brahma himself.

2. The delusion of the visionary world, being too palpable to our view, has kept the supreme spirit quite out of our sight; as the spirit of the wine is kept hid in the liquor, though it can never be lost.

3. The unreal phenomenal being discarded as delusion, and the real noumenal being incomprehensible; and the absence of any positive subsistence of existence, has necessitated our belief in the endless void and vacuity.

4. That the embodied Intellect, called the purusha or soul, is the supreme cause (in the Sánkhya system); and the world proceeds from the unknown principle, known as the pradhána or its principal source. The truth of this view of the creation, rests wholly on the opinion of the philosopher (Kapila).

5. That the visible world is the form of the all pervasive spirit of God, is the thesis of the Vedántists; and this opinion of theirs regarding the formal world and its plasmic principle, depends solely on the conception of these philosophers.

6. That the world is a conglomeration of particles, is the position of the positive and atomic philosophers of the Nyáya system; and all these doctrines are relied upon and maintained, by the best belief of every party.

7. Both the present and future worlds are as they are seen and thought to be, is the tenet of some; while the spiritualist looks upon it neither in the light of an entity nor non entity either.

5158. Others acknowledge the outer world only, and nothing besides which is beyond their eye sight; and these Chárváka atheists, do not avouch even for the intelligent soul, which is within their bodies.

9. There are others, who seeing the incessant changes and fluctuations of things with the flight of time, attribute omnipotence to it, and have become timists, with a persuasion of the evanescence of the world.

10. The belief of the barbarians, regarding the resurrection of the soul from the grave, which is built on the analogy of the sparrow flying away from under its covering lid; has gained a firm ground in the minds of men in these countries, and is never doubted by any.

11. The tolerant sage looks alike and takes in equal light all apparent differences; since they know that all these varieties in the world, are but manifestations of the One all pervading and invariable soul.

12. As it is the nature of the world, to go on in its course; so it is natural with the wise, to entertain these various opinions regarding the same. The truth however is quite mysterious, and hard to be found by inquiry; but it is certain that there is an all creative power, that is guided by intelligence and design in all its works.

13. That there is one creator of all, is the truth arrived at by all godly men and truthful minds; whoso is certain of this truth, is sure to arrive at it without any obstruction.

14. That this world exists and the future one also, is the firm belief of the faithful; and that their sacred ablutions and oblations to that end and never go for nothing; such assurance on their part, is sure to lead them to the success of their object.

15. An infinite vacuity is reality, is the conclusion arrived at by the Buddhist; but there is nothing to be gained by this inquiry, nor any good to be derived from a void nullity.

16. It is the Divine Intelligence which is sought by all, as they seek an inestimable gem or the Kalpa tree of life; and this fills our inward soul, with the fulness of the Divine spirit.

17. The Lord is neither vacuity nor non-vacuity, nor a 516nonentity either as it is maintained by others; He is omnipotent, and this omnipotence does not abide in Him, nor is it without Him, but is the selfsame Himself.

18. Therefore let every one rely in his own belief, until he arrives to the true and spiritual knowledge of God. By doing so he will obtain the reward of his faith, and therefore he must refrain from his fickleness (of forsaking his own faith).

19. Therefore consult with the learned, and judge with them about the right course; and then accept and follow what is best and correct, and reject all what proves to be otherwise.

20. A man becomes wise by knowledge of sástras, as also by practicing the conduct of the good; as also by associating with the wise and good, wherever such persons may be found upon inquiry.

21. He who serves and attends upon the preachers of sacred sástras, and on practicers of good and moral conduct; is also deemed a wise man, and his company also is to be resorted to by the wise.

22. All living beings, are naturally impelled towards whatever tends to their real good; as it is the nature of water to seek its own level. Therefore men should choose the company of the good for their best good.

23. Men are carried away as straws, by the waves in the eventful ocean of the world; and their days are passing away as insensibly (rapidly), as the dew drops are falling off from the blades of grass.

24. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me Sir, who are those far seeing persons, who sensing at first this world to be full of weeds and thorns, come at last by their right judgment, to rest in the state of ineffable felicity. (i.e. Who are they that are resigned to God after their troublesome journey in the thorny paths of the world).

25. Vasishtha replied:—It is the wording of the sruti, that there some such persons among all classes of beings, whose presence sheds a lustre, as bright as that of the broad and shining day light. (These are gods, men).

26. Beside them there are others, who are quite ignorant of 517truth, and are tossed about and whirled up and down like straws, by the whirling waters of the dangerous eddies of ignorance, in the dark and dismal ocean of this world.

27. These are drowned in their enjoyments, and lost to the bliss of their souls; and are ever burning in the flames of worldly cares; such are some among the gods, who are burning on high, like as the mountain trees are inflamed by the wild fire.

28. The proud demigods were vanquished by their inimical gods, and were cast down into the abyss by Náráyana; as big elephants into the pit, with the ichor of their giddiness.

29. The Gandharva songsters (that are skilled in music only), show no sign of right reason in them; but being giddy with the wine of melody, they fall into the hands of death, as the silly stags are caught in the snare (by their fondness for the sweet sound of the hunter’s horn).

30. The Vidyádharas are mad with their knowledge (of arts, of sciences); and do not hold in esteem the esoteric and grand science of divinity for their salvation.

31. The yakshas who are impregnable themselves, are ever apt to injure all others on earth; and they exercise their noxious powers, chiefly upon the helpless infants, old men and weak and infirm persons.

32. There are again the gigantic and elephant like Rákshasas, who have been repeatedly destroyed by Hari, and will be utterly extirpated by you, as a herd of sheep by a powerful lion.

33. The Pisácha cannibals are always in quest of human prey, and devour their bodies as the burning fire consumes the oblations. They are therefore in utter darkness of spiritual knowledge.

34. The Nága race that dwell underneath the ground, resemble the stalks of lotuses drowned under the water, or as the roots of trees buried under the earth (and therefore they are quite insensible of truth).

35. The Asura race dwelling in subterranean cells, are as 518worms and insects, grovelling in dark under the ground, and are utterly ignorant of any knowledge or discrimination.

36. And what must we say of foolish mankind, who like the poor ants, are moving busily by night and day, in search of a morsel (lit.—particle) of bread (and have not a whit of understanding in them).

37. All living bodies are running up and down for ever, in their vain expectations; and the days and nights are insensibly gliding over them, as upon drunken men (unconscious of themselves).

38. The knowledge of pure truth, never enters into the mind of men; as the dust flying over the surface of water never sink in its depth.

39. The holy vows of men are blown away, by the blasts of their pride and vanity; as the husks of rice are blown off, by the wind of the threshing mill.

40. Other people that are without true knowledge, are like the yoginís and Pamaras—pariahs, are addicted to the carnalities of their eating and drinking; and to roll in stink and stench and mud and mire.

41. Among the gods, only Yama, the sun and moon, Indra and Rudras, and Varuna and Váyu, are said to live liberated for ever; and so are Brahmá, Hari and Vrihaspati and Sukra, (the preceptors of the gods and demigods).

42. Among the patriarchs Daxa, Kasyapa and others, are said to be living liberated; and among the seven sages, Nárada, Sanaka and goddess born Kumara are liberated for ever.

43. Among the Danava demons, there were some that had their emancipation also; and these were Hiranyaksha, Vali, Prahlada and Sambara, together with Maya, Vritra, Andha, Namuchi, Kesi, Mura and others. (Some of whom were foes and others as friends of the god).

44. Among Rákshasas Vibhisana, Prahasta and Indrajit are held as liberated; and so are Sesha, Taxaka, Karkota and some others among the Nágas or serpent race.

45. The liberated are entitled to dwell in the abodes of Brahma and Vishnu, and in the heaven of Indra; and there are 519some the manes of the Pitris, siddhas and Sáddhyas, that are reckoned as liberated also.

46. Among the human race also, there are some that are liberated in their life time; as the few princes, saints and Bráhmanas, whose names are preserved to us in the sacred records.

47. There are living beings in multitudes, on all sides of us in this earth, but there are very few among them that are enlightened with true knowledge in them; there are unnumbered trees and forests growing all around us, and bearing their fruits and flowers and foliage to no end; but there is scarcely a kalpatree to be found among them (which may yield to us the fruit that we ardently desire).

Vasishtha continued:—Those among the judicious and wise, that are indifferent to and unconcerned with the world, and resigned to the divinity, and resting in his state of supreme felicity; have all their desires and delusions abated, and their enemies lessened in this world.

2. He is neither gladdened nor irritated at any thing, nor engages in any matter, nor employs himself in the accumulation of earthly effects. He does not annoy any body, nor is he annoyed by any one.

3. He does not bother his head about theism or atheism, nor torment his body with religious austerities; he is agreeable and sweet in his demeanour, and is pleasing and genteel in his conversation.

4. His company gladdens the hearts of all, as the moonlight delights the minds of men; he is circumspect in all affairs, and the best judge in all matters.

5. He is without any anxiety in his conduct, and is polite and friendly to all; he manages patiently all his outward business, but is quite cool in his inward mind.

6. He is learned in the sástras, and takes a delight in their exposition; he knows all people and both past and present; and knows also what is good and bad for any, and is content with whatever comes to pass on him.

7. The wise act according to the established usage of good people, and refrain from what is opposed to it; they gladden all men with their free admonitions, as the zephyr regales them with the gratuitous odours of flowers; and they afford a ready reception and board to the needy.

5218. They treat with respect the needy that repair to their doors; just as the blooming lotus entertains the bee, that resorts to the same; and they attract the heart of people, by their endeavours, to save them from their sins.

9. They are as cold as any cooling thing, or like the clouds in the rainy season; and as sedate as rocks, and capable of removing the calamities of people, by their meritorious acts.

10. They have the power to prevent the impending dangers of men, as the mountains keep the earth from falling at the earth-quake; they support the failing spirit of men in their calamitous circumstances, and congratulate with them in their prosperity.

11. Their countenances are as comely as the fair face of the moon, and they are as well wishers of men, as their loving consorts; their fame fills the world as flowers of spring in order to produce the fruits of general good.

12. Holy men are as the vernal season, and their voice as the notes of kokilas, delighting all mankind; and their minds are as profound oceans, undisturbed by the turbulent waves and eddies of passions and thoughts of other people.

13. They pacify the troubled minds of others, by their wise counsels, as the cold weather calms the turbulent waters and seas, and puts to rest their boisterous waves.

14. They resemble the robust rocks on the sea-shore, withstanding the force of the dashing surges of worldly troubles and afflictions; which overwhelm and bewilder the minds of mankind.

15. These saintly men are resorted to by good people only, at the times of their utmost danger and distress; and these and the like are the signs, whereby these good hearted people, are distinguished from others.

16. Let the weary traveller rely for his rest in his Maker alone, in his tiresome journey through this world; which resembles the rough sea, filled with huge whales and dragons.

17. There is no other means for getting over this hazardous ocean, without the company of the good, which like a stout 522vessel safely bears him across. There is no reasoning required to prove it so, but it must be so.

18. Therefore do not remain as a dull sloth in the den, to brood over your sorrows in vain; but repair to the wise man who possesses any one of these virtues for your redress, by leaving all other concerns.

19. Mind not his fault but respect his merit, and learn to scan the good and bad qualities of men from thy youth with all diligence.

20. First of all and by all means improve your understanding, by the company of the good and careful study of the sástras; and serve all good people without minding their faults.

21. Shun the society of men (whether friends or relatives), who are conspicuous for some great and incorrigible crime; otherwise it will change the sweet composure of your mind, to bitterness and disquiet. (So in Raghuvansa:—The society of wicked friend, is to be cut off as an ulcerous limb).

22. This I know from my observation, of the righteous turning to unrighteousness; this is the greatest of all evils (and must be feared), when the honest turn to be dishonest.

23. This change and falling off of good men, from their moral rectitude, have been seen in many places and at different times; wherefore it is necessary to choose the company of the good only, for one’s safety in this and salvation in the next world.

24. Therefore no one should live afar from the society of the good and great; who are ever to be regarded with respect and esteem; because the company of the good though slightly courted, is sure to purify the newcomer with the flying fragrance of their virtues.

Ráma rejoined:—Verily we (rational beings), have a great many means, for relieving our pains. Such as our reason, the precepts of the sástras, the advices of our friends and the society of the wise and good; beside the applications of mantras and medicines, the giving of charities, performances of religious austerities, going to pilgrimages and resorting to holy places (all which have the efficacy of removing our calamities and rendering us happy).

2. But tell me what is the state of the brute creation such as of the worms and insects, birds and flies, and the other creeping, crawling and bending animals; whether they are not alike susceptible with ourselves of pain and pleasure, and what means they have to remedy their pains and evils.

3. Vasishtha replied:—All creatures whether animals or vegetables, are destined to partake of the particular enjoyments, which are allotted to their respective shares; and are ever tending towards that end.

4. All living beings from the noble and great to the mean and minute, have their appetites and desires like ourselves; but the difference consists in their lesser or greater proportion in us and themselves. (i.e. Mankind is actuated in a lesser degree by their passions and appetites than their violence in the brute tribes).

5. As the great Virát-like big bodies, are actuated by their passions and feelings, so also the little vályakhilyas or puny tribes of insects, are fed by their self love to pursue their own ends.

6. Behold the supportless fowls of the firmament, flying and 524falling in the air, are quite content with roving in empty vacuity, without seeking a place for their rest.

7. Look at the incessant endeavours of the little emmet, in search of its food and hoarding its store like ourselves, for the future provision of our families, and never resting content for a moment.

8. There the little mollusks, as minute as atoms of dust, and yet as quick in quest of its food, as when the swift eagle is in pursuit of its prey, in the etherial sphere.

9. As the world passes with us in the thoughts of ourselves, our egoism and meity of this and that; so it goes on with every creature, in its selfish thoughts and cares for its own kind. (Self-love is the prime mover of all living bodies, towards their own good).

10. The lives of filthy worms are spent like ours, in their toil and anxious care for food and provisions, at all places and times of their duration in the world.

11. The vegetable creation is some what more awakened, in their state of existence, than mineral productions, which continue as dead and dormant for ever. But the worms and insects, are as awakened from their dormancy as men, in order to remain restless for ever.

12. Their lives are as miserable as ours, upon this earth of sin and pain, and their death is as desirable as ours, in order to set us free from misery after a short-lived pain.

13. As a man sold and transported to a foreign country, sees all things with wonder that are not his own; so it is with the brute animals, to see all strange things in this earth.

14. All animals find every thing on earth, to be either as painful or pleasant to them, as they are to us also; but they have not the ability like us, to distinguish what is good for them from whatever is noxious to them.

15. Brute animals are dragged by their bridles and nose-strings, as men who are sold as slaves to labour in distant lands, have to bear with all sorts of pains and privation, without being able to communicate or complain of them to any body.

16. The trees and plants and their germs, are liable to similar 525pains and troubles like us, when our thin-skinned bodies are annoyed by inclement weather, or assailed by gnats and bugs, during the time of our sleep (i.e. The vegetable tribe is equally sensible of pain as the animal in their sleeping state).

17. And as we mortals on earth, have our knowledge of things—padártha-vedana, and the sagacity of forsaking a famine stricken place for our welfare else where; so it is with the bending brutes and birds, to emigrate from lands of scarcity to those of plenty. (i.e. Brutes are alike discerning as men).

18. The delightsome is equally delectable to all, and the God Indra as well as a worm, are alike inclined towards what is pleasurable to them; and this tendency to pleasure proceeds from their own option of choice. This freedom of choice is not denied to any but is irresistible in all, and he who knows his free will (or self agency), is altogether free and liberated. (The text uses two words viz., Vikshepa or projection of the soul (or inclination), as actuated by Vikalpa or one’s free choice of anything. This passage establishes the doctrine of free choice and self agency of all living beings, against the common belief in an imperious fatality).

19. The pleasure and pain, arising from the passions and feelings, and from enjoyments in life; and torments of diseases and death, are alike to all living beings.

20. Except the knowledge of things, and that of past and future events, as also of the arts of life; all the various kinds of animals, are possest of all other animal faculties and propensities like those of mankind.

21. The drowsy vegetable kingdom, and the dormant mountain and other insensible natures; are fully sensible in themselves, of a vacuous intellectual power whereon they subsist. (They are as the inactive but meditative yogis, who with their external insensibility, are internally conscious of the Divine spirit).

22. But there are some that deny the sensibility of an intellectual spirit, in the dormant and fixed bodies of arbours and mountains; and allow the consciousness of the vacuous intellect, 526but in a very slight degree, in moving animals and in the majority of living and ignorant part of mankind.

23. The solid state of mountains and the sleepy nature of the vegetable creation, being devoid of the knowledge of a dualism (other than their own natures) have no sense of the existence of the world, except that of a non-entity or mere vacuity.

24. The knowledge of the entity of the world, is accompanied with utter ignorance of its nature or agnosticism; for when we know not ourselves or the subjective, how is it possible for us to know the objective world.

25. The world is situated as ever, in its state of dumb torpidity, like a dull block of wood or stone; it is without its beginning and end, and without an aperture in it, and is as the dreaming wakefulness of a sleeping man.

26. The world exists in the same state, as it did before its creation; and it will continue to go on for ever even as now; because eternity is always the same both before and after.

27. It is neither the subjective nor objective, nor the plenum nor vacuum; nor is it a mute substance nor any thing whatever.

28. Remain thou as thou art, and let me remain as I am; and being exempt from pleasure or pain in our state of vacuity, we find nothing existent nor non-existent herein.

29. Say why you forsake your state of absolute nothingness, and what you get in your visionary city of this world; it is all calm and quiet without, as your vacuous Intellect is serene and clear within you.

30. It is the want of right knowledge, that causes our error of the world; but no sooner do we come to detect this false knowledge of ours, than this error flies away from us.

31. The world being known as a dream, and having no reality in it, it is as vain to place any reliance therein, as to place one’s affections <on> the son of a barren woman, or confide in such a one.

32. When the dream of the world is known to be a mere dream or false, even at the time of dreaming it in sleep; what 527faith or confidence can be relied on it, on one’s coming to know its nothingness upon his waking.

33. What is known in the waking state, could not be otherwise in that of sleep; whatever is known in the later hour of coming to its knowledge, the same must have been its previous state also. (i.e. The world is nothing, both in the states of its knowledge as well as ignorance).

34. There are the three times of present, past and future, and our knowledge of these, proceeds from our ignorance of endless duration; which is the only real tranquil and universal substratum of all (and this is the attribute of the ever unchanging One).

35. As the breaking of breakers, by the dashing of waves against one another, does no harm to the waters of the sea; so the molestation or destruction of one body by another, does no injury to the inward soul, which is ever impregnable and also indestructible.

36. It is the vacuous Intellect within us, that gives rise to the erroneous conception of our bodies; wherefore the loss of the body or its false conception, does not affect our intellect and ourselves neither.

37. The waking soul sees the world, situated in the vacuity of Intellect, as it were in its sleep; and this of creation in the mind being devoid of materiality, is very like a dream; (which proceeds from reminiscence only).

38. The ideas (dhi) of material things, are produced in the beginning of creation, from their previous impressions left in the intellect; and the world being but a dream or work of imagination; it is an error of the brain to take it for a reality.

39. The traces of prior dreams and reminiscences (of previous birth), being preserved in the memory or mind; the same things appear and reappear in it (in later births), and represent their aerial shapes as substantial figures (as some pictures appear true to life).

40. This error has taken possession of the mind, in the same manner as the untrue is taken for truth: while the 528transcendent and clear truth of the omniform soul is rejected as untrue.

41. In reality there is the Divine Intellect only, that has existed for ever; and this being the most certain truth that Brahma is all in all, the doctrine of reminiscence and oblivion goes to nothing.

42. It is sheer ignorance, which is devoid of this spiritual knowledge, and views things in their physical light only; and in this lies the true knowledge, which breaks open the door of ignorance. (i.e. Spiritualism alone, dispels the gloom of materialism).

43. There remains nothing at last, after expulsion of the error of materiality; except the pure spirit of God, who is both the viewer and the view, or the subjective and objective in himself.

44. As the reflexion of anything falling on a mirror, shows the figure of that thing within itself; so the world shines of itself in the vacuity of the Divine Intellect, and with the reflection of anything else, being ever cast upon it.

45. As the reflexion of a thing, exhibits itself in its bosom, though nobody was to look at it; so the world is shown in the Divine Intellect, though the same is invisible to every one.

46. Whatever is found as true, both by reason and proof, the same must be the certain truth; all else is mere semblance of it; and not being actual can never be true.

47. And though the knowledge of the material world, is proved to be false and untrue, yet it is found to mislead us, as the act of somnambulation does in our sleep and dreaming state.

48. It is the lustre of the Divine Luminary, that casts its reflexion into the Intellect, and emblazons the intellectual sphere supremely bright. Tell me therefore what are we and this pageant of the world, any more than a réchauffé or a print of that archetype.

49. If there is a resuscitation of ourselves after our demise, then what is it that is lost to us; and should there be no regeneration of us after death, then there is a perfect tranquility of 529our souls, by our utter extinction, and emancipation from the pains of life and death. Or if we have our liberation by the light of philosophy, then there nothing here, that lends to our woe in any state whatsoever.

50. The ignorant man alone knows the state of the ignorant, wherein the wise are quite ignorant; as the fishes alone know the perilous state of the stag, that is fallen amidst the waves and eddies of the sea.

51. It is the open sphere of the Divine Intellect only, that represents the divers images of I, thou, he and this and that in its hollow space; as a tree shows the sundry forms of its leaves, fruits, flowers &c., in its all producing body or stem.

Ráma rejoined:—Please to tell me, sir, what are your arguments, for allaying the miseries of this world, against the position (paksha) of others who maintain in that:—

2. A living being is happy so long, as the dread of death (either of himself or others) is out of his view; and that there is no reappearance (revivification) of the dead, that is already reduced to ashes. (Hence there is no happiness either for the living or dead (according to them)).

3. Vasishtha replied:—Whatever is the certain belief of any body, he finds the same in his consciousness; and that he feels and conceives accordingly, is a truth that is well known to all mankind (that every one thinks according to his belief).

4. As the firmament is firm, quiet and ubiquitous, so also is the ubiquity of the Intellect (i.e. the vacuous intellect is also allpervading), and are considered to form a duality by the ignorant dualist, while the sapient take them as the one and same thing, from the impossibility of conceiving the co-existence of two things from eternity.

5. It is wrong to suppose the existence of a chaos before creation began, for that would be assigning another (chaotic) cause to the creation when has proceeded from Brahma, who is without a cause and is diffused in his creation.

6. He who does not acknowledge the purport of the Vedas, (that all things are produced from Brahma), and the final great dissolution (when all things are dissolved in and return to him); are known as men without a revelation and religion, and are considered as dead by us (i.e. spiritually dead).

7. Those whose minds are settled in the undisputed belief of the sástras, that all these is Brahmá or the varied god himself; 531are persons with whom we have to hold no discussion or argument.

8. As our consciousness is ever awake in our minds, and without any intermission; so Brahma that constitutes our consciousness, is ever wakeful in us, whether the body lasts or not.

9. If our perceptions are to produce our consciousness, then must man be very miserable indeed; because the sense of a feeling, other <than> that of the ever felicitous state of the soul, is what actually makes us so.

10. Knowing the universe as the splendours of the intellectual vacuum (i.e. in the sphere of the vacuous intellect); you cannot suppose the knowledge of anything, or the feeling of any pleasure or pain, ever to attach or stick to an empty nothing. (i.e. to the vacuous spirit).

11. Hence men who are quite certain and conscious, of the entirety and pure unity of the soul, can never find the feelings of sorrow or grief, to rise in or overwhelm it in any way than the dust of earth rising to the sky, and filling its sphere with foulness. (This passage rests on text of the sruti which says: there is no sorrow or pain to any body who sees the pure unity only).

12. Whether the consciousness of unity, be true or not in all men; yet the common notion of it even in the minds of boys, cannot be discarded as untrue. (i.e. All men may differ in their conceptions respecting the nature of the Divine soul, but they all agree in the notion of one prime cause of all. See kusumanjali).

13. The body is not the soul nor the living spirit, nor any other thing of which we have any conception; It is the consciousness which is every thing, and the world is as it conceives it to be. (There is nothing beyond our consciousness of it).

14. Whether it is true or not, yet we have the conception of our bodies by means of this; and it gives us conceptions of all things in earth, water and heaven, independent of their material forms, as we see the aerial forms of things in our 532dreams. (i.e. We are conscious only of the abstract notions of things, and of their substantial properties).

15. Whether our consciousness is a real entity or not, yet it is this power which is called the conscious soul; and whatever is the conviction of this power, the same is received as positive truth by all.

16. The authority of all the sástras, rests upon the proof of consciousness; and the truth which is generally arrived at by all, must be acknowledged as quite certain in my opinion also.

17. Therefore the consciousness of atheists, which is vitiated by their misunderstanding, being purified afterwards by right reasoning, becomes productive of good results likewise (i.e. of producing the fruit of their liberation also).

18. But a perverted conscience or vitiated understanding, is never reproved by any means; either by performance of pious acts at any time or place, or by study of vedas, or by pursuit of other things.

19. Errors of the understanding (avidyá) recur to the reprobate as often as they corrected from time to time; say therefore what other means can there be, to preserve our consciousness from fallacy.

20. Self-consciousness is the soul of man, and in proportion to its firmness or weakness, the happiness or misery of man, increases or decreases accordingly. (i.e. The strong minded are always prosperous).

21. If there is a consciousness in men, and such men also who are conscious of the Divine essence in them, and those who are resorted to by the pious, for their liberation from the bonds of the world; then this world would appear as a dead and dumb block of stone, and a dark and dreary desert.

22. The knowledge of nature or gross materialism, which rises in the mind of man, for want of his knowledge of the consciousness of himself, is like the dark ignorance in which one is involved in his sleep.

23. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me Sir, how is that atheist who denies the end of the ten sides of heaven, and disbelieves the 533destruction of the world; who believe only in what is existent, and have no thought of inexistence (either prior to the creation or after its dissolution).

24. Who does not perceive the perfect wisdom, which is displayed throughout the universe; but sees only whatever is visible, without knowing their destruction (frailty). (The atheists consider the world as eternal).

25. Tell me Sir, what are their arguments, about allaying the evils of the world; and remove my doubts about it, for increase of my knowledge in this important truth.

26. Vasishtha replied:—I have already given my reply to your query regarding the infidels (that they are not to be spoken to); hear me now to give the reply with regard to your second question touching the salvation of the soul.

27. O best of men Ráma! you have spoken in this sense, that the human soul (purusha) is constituted of the intelligence alone (as you think it to be and which is but a flash of the Divine Intellect, and the measure of the objects of consciousness).

28. This intelligence (or intelligent soul) is indestructible, and is not destroyed with the destruction of the body, but is joined with the Divine Intelligence without fail. Or if the body be indestructible (owing to its resurrection after death), then there is no cause of sorrow at its temporary loss.

29. The intelligence is said to be divided into various parts, in the souls of men and different members of their bodies; if so it be, then the intelligence is destroyed with the destruction of individual souls and bodily members also. (Therefore the supremely intelligent soul is beyond these).

30. The self-conscious soul that is liberated in the living state, has no more to return to earth after death; but the consciousness which is not purified by divine knowledge, cannot be exempted from its transmigration to this world.

31. Those again that deny the existence of consciousness, such souls are doomed to the gross ignorance of stones (i.e. to become stony block heads) for this disbelief of theirs.

32. As the knowledge of sensible objects, keeps the mind in utter darkness; so the death of such persons is calculated 534as their final bliss, because they have <no> more to feel the sensibles nor view the visible world any more (although they are deprived of their spiritual bliss).

33. Men of pure understandings; who have lost the sense of their corporeality, are never to be reborn on earth any more; but those of dull understandings, become as gross corporeal bodies and are involved in impenetrable darkness (i.e. the gloom of ignorance according to the dictum of the sruti).

34. Those intellectual philosophers (vijnána-vádis), who view the world as an aerial city in his dream; to them the world presents its aspect as a phantom and no other. (The world is a day dream, and its sight a delusion. In haman ke didam khab bud).

35. There are some that maintain the stability, and others asserting the frailty of the world and every thing; but what do they gain by these opinions, since the knowledge of either, neither augments the amount of human happiness, nor lessens any quantity of mortal misery (i.e. the misery of mortals).

36. The stability or unstability, of the greatest or least of things, makes no difference in any of them whatever; they are all alike the radiating rays of the intellect, though they appear as extended bodies to the ignorant.

37. Those who assign unlimitedness to the essence of consciousness, and of limitation to that of insensibility; and maintain the permanence of the one and the transience of the other, talk mere nonsense like the babbling of boys.

38. They are the best and most venerable of men, who know the body to be the product of and encompassed by the intellect. And they are the meanest among mankind, who believe the intellect as the produce and offspring of the body; (and these are Kanada and Nyáya philosophers of gross materialism, who believe intelligence as a resultant of the material body).

39. The intellect (personified as Hiranyagarbha or Brahmá the Divine spirit), is distributed into the souls of all living beings; and the infinite space of vacuity, is as a net work or curtain, which all animal lives, flying within its ample expanse 535like bodies of gnats and flies, and rising up and sinking below or moving all about, as the shoals of fishes in the interminable ocean. (The Divine Intellect or spirit, is the collection of all specialities).

40. As this universal soul, thinks of creating the various species; so it conceives them within itself, as the seeds conceive the future plants in themselves, and the same are developed afterward.

41. Whatever lives or living beings, it thinks of or conceives in itself; the same spring forth quickly from it, and this truth is known even to boys (from the repeated texts importing the Lord as the fountain of all).

42. As the vapours fly in the air, and as the waters roll in the ocean; and as they form curls and waves of various kinds, so the lives of living beings, are continually floating in the vacuum of the Divine Intellect.

43. As the vacuity of the Intellect, presents the sight of a city to a man in his dream; so the world presents its variegated aspects since its first creation, to the sight of the day dreaming man.

44. There were no co-ordinate causes of material bodies (as earth, water &c.), at the first formation of the world; but it rose spontaneously of itself as the empty sights appearing in our dream.

45. As in a city seen in dream, its houses and their apartments, come to appear gradually to sight; so the dream becomes enlarged and expanded and divided by degrees to our vision.

46. All this creation is but the empty void of the intellect, (or as pictures drawn in empty air); there is no duality or variety in it, but is one even plane of the intellect, like the open sky, without any spot or place attached to it.

47. The moon-light of the Intellect, diffuses its coolness on all sides, and gladdens the souls of all beings; it scatters the beams of intellection all around, and casts its reflexions in the image of the world.

48. The world as it is now visible to us, lies for ever in the mind of God in the same vacuous state, as it was before its 536creation; and as it is to be reduced to nothing upon its final destruction. It is the twinkling, or the opening and closing of the intellectual eye, that this empty shadow of the world, appears and disappears amidst the universal vacuum of the Divine Mind.

49. Whoever views this world in any light, it appears to him in the same manner (as some thinking it a solid plenum, and others as an empty vacuum). And as it depends upon the Intellect alone, it is exhibited in various forms according to the caprice of its observers.

50. The minds of the intelligent, are as pure as the clear sphere of the summer sky; and the pure hearted and holy people, think themselves as nothing else, beside their intellects or as intellectual beings only.

51. These pious and holy people, are free from ignorance and the faults of society; they share the gifts of fortune, as it falls to them by the common lot of mankind; and they continue in the conduct of their worldly affairs, like some working machine (acting externally and without taking any thing to mind).

Vasishtha continued:—Thus it is the Intellect only which is the soul of the body also, and which is situated every where in the manner as said before; and there is nothing which is so self-evident as the Intellect (or self-consciousness).

2. This is the clear expanse of the sky and, it is the medium of the vision of the viewer and visibles; it composes and encompasses the whole world, and therefore there is nothing to be had or lost without it.

3. The doctrinaires of the atheistic school of Brihaspati, that disbelieve the future state because of their ignorance of it; are believers of the present from their knowledge hereof. Thus knowledge or consciousness being the basis of their belief, we bear no favour nor disfavour to their doctrine. (We neither favor nor hate).

4. The world being but a name for the dream, which is produced in the vacuum of our hidden knowledge; say what cause is there for the debate of disputants, in their one sided view of the question.

5. Our consciousness knows well in itself, what is good or bad, and therefore acceptable or not. The pure soul is manifest in the clear vacuity of air, where there is neither this nor that view of it, exhibited to anyone.

6. The conscious soul is immortal, O Ráma, and is not of the form of a rock or tree or any animal; consciousness is a mere vacuum, and all being and not being (i.e. our birth and deaths are as the waves and curling waters, in its ocean of eternity).

5387. We are all floating in the vacuum of consciousness, both I and thou and he as well as any other; and none of us is ever liable to die, because consciousness is never susceptible of death.

8. Consciousness has nothing to be conscious but of itself only; and therefore, O big eyed Ráma, where can you get a duality, except the single subjectivity of the Intellect? (To Make the Intellect both as subjective as well as objective, is something like the supposition of its riding on itself).

9. Tell me, O Ráma! what is the product or offspring of the vacuous Intellect, and tell me also if that Intellect would die away, whence could we and all others proceed any more. (This proves the immortality of the Intellect, whence as all things are incessantly proceeding from).

10. Tell me what sort of beings are these atheistic disputants, the saugatas, Lokáyatikas and others; if they are devoid of their consciousness, which they so strenuously deny and disallow.

11. It is this vacuous consciousness which some name as Brahma, and which some style as knowledge and others as the empty vacuum.

12. Some call it the spirit (of bodies), like that of spirituous liquors; and others (as the sankhyas), use the term purusha or embodied spirit for it. Others (as the yogis), call <it> the vacuous Intellect, while others as the saivas, give it the names of Siva and the soul (and so it is called by various other names by others).

13. It is sometimes styled the Intellect only, which makes no difference of it from the other attributes. The supreme soul is ever the same in itself, by whatever name it is expressed by the ignorance of men.

14. Be my body as big as a hill, or crushed to atoms as dust; it is no gain or loss to me in any wise either, since I am the same intellectual body or being for ever and ever.

15. Our sires and grand sires, are all dead and gone; but their intellects and intellectual parts, are not dead and lost with their bodies; for in the case of their demise, we would not have 539their regeneration in us. (Because the sruti says, “atmá vai jáyate putra,” the soul is regenerated in the son).

16. The vacuous Intellect is neither generated nor destroyed at any time, but is increate and imperishable at all times; say how and when could the eternal void come to or disappear from existence.

17. The infinite and indestructible sphere of the Intellect, displays the scene of the universe in its ample space of vacuity, it is without its vicissitudes of rising or setting, and is ever existent in the supreme soul.

18. The Intellect represents the reflexion of the world in its clear sphere, as a crystal mountain reflects a wild fire in its translucent bosom; and rests for ever in the vacuum of the supreme soul, which is devoid of its beginning, middle and end.

19. As the shades of night obscure the visibles from sight, so the clouds of ignorance darken the bright aspect of the universe, as it is represented in the soul divine.

20. As the waters of the ocean, roll of themselves in the forms of waves and eddies; so doth the Intellect exhibit the pageant of the universe, of itself and in itself from all eternity.

21. The Intellect itself is the soul of the body, and like air is never extinct or wanting any where; therefore it is all in vain, to be in fear of one’s death at any time. (Life and death are indifferent to the yogi).

22. It is a great joy to pass from one into another body (as there is in quitting a decayed house for a new one); therefore say ye fools, why do ye fear and grieve to die, when there every cause to rejoice at it.

23. If after death there be no regeneration of the dead, then it is a consummation devoutly to be wished; because it eases and releases at once, from the heart burning disease and dread, of being and not being, and their repeated woes and miseries by turns. (To be and not be; that is the question &c.).

24. Therefore life and death, are neither for our weal or woe; 540because they are neither of them any thing in reality, except the representations of the intellect. (The mind paints them in different colours).

25. If the dead are to be reborn in new bodies, it is a cause of rejoicing and sorrowing; and the death or destruction of the decayed body for a sound one, is accounted as a change for better.

26. If death convey the meaning of the ultimate dissolution of a person, it is desirable even in that sense, for the cessation of our pains altogether; or it is used to mean one’s resuscitation in a new body and life, it must be a cause of great rejoicing.

27. If death be dreaded for fear of the punishment, awaiting on the vicious deeds of the dead; it is even so in this life also for the penalties waiting on our quilt even here: refrain therefore from doing evil, for your safety and happiness in both worlds.

28. You all are ever crying lest ye die; but none of you is ever heard to say, that you are going to live again.

29. What is the meaning of life and death, and where are the lands where these are seen to take place? Do they not occur in our consciousness alone, and turn about in the vacuum of the mind?

30. Remain firm with your conscious souls, and eat and drink and act your part with indifference; for being situated in the midst of vacuity, you can have nothing to ask or wish for.

31. Being carried away in the reverie of your dream, and enjoying the gifts of time and changing circumstances; live content with what is got without fear, and know this as the holiest state.

32. Regardless of the intervening evils, which over take us in every place and time; the holy sage conducts himself with equanimity, as a sleeping man over the tumults of life.

33. The holy sage is neither sorry at his death, nor glad of his life and longevity; he neither likes nor hates any thing, nor does he desire aught whatever.

54134. The wise man that knows all what is knowable, manages to live in this world as an ignorant simpleton; he is as firm and fearless as a rock, and reckons his life and death as rotten and worthless straws.

Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, the perfection which a holy man attains to, after he is acquainted with the supreme essence, which is without its beginning and end.

2. Vasishtha replied:—Hear the high state to which the holy man arrives, after he has known the knowable; and the mode of his life and conduct, throughout the whole course of his existence.

3. He lives apart from human society, in his solitary retreat in the woods, and there has the stones of the dales, the trees of the forest, and the young antelopes, for his friends, kindred and associates.

4. The most populous city, is deemed as a lonely desert by him; his calamities are his blessings, and all his dangers are festivities to him.

5. His pains are his pleasure, and his meditations are as musings to him; he is silent in all his dealings, and quiet in all his conduct through life.

6. He is somnolent in his waking hours, and remains as dead to himself while he is living; he manages all his affairs with a coolness, as if he was engaged in nothing.

7. He is pleasant without tasting any pleasure, and is friendly to his fellow beings without any selfish interest of his own; he is strict to himself but ever kind to others, and is undesirous of everything, with his full desire for common weal.

8. He is pleased with the conduct of others, without having any course of action for himself; and devoid of sorrow, fear and care, yet he is seen always to wear a melancholy appearance. (A heavily pensive melancholy).

5439. He afflicts nobody, nor is afflicted by any body; and though full with his private afflictions and privations, he is ever pleasant in company. (Pleased with himself, he pleases all).

10. He is neither delighted with his gain, nor depressed at his loss, nor desirous to get any thing; and though there may be causes, for his feeling joy as well as sorrow, yet they are never visible in his face.

11. He sympathises with the unhappy, and congratulates with happy people; but his collected mind is always invincible, in every circumstance of life.

12. His mind is not inclined to acts, beside those of righteousness; as it is the wont of noble-minded men by their nature, and not any effort on their part.

13. He is not fond of pleasantry, nor is he addicted to dulness either; he does not hanker after wealth, but is inappetent and impossible with all his appetites and sensibleness.

14. He abides by law and acts accordingly, whether he is pinched by poverty, or rolling in riches; nor is he ever dejected or elated, at the unforeseen good or bad events of life.

15. They are seen to be joyous and sorrowful also at times, without changing the sedateness and serenity of their nature at any time. They act the part of players on the stage of the earth (that display many figures in their outward mein).

16. Those that know the truth, bear no more affection for their mercenary relatives and false friends, than they look upon the bubbles of water (that swell and swim, only to burst in a moment).

17. Without the affection of the soul, they bear full affection for others in their hearts; and the wise man remains quite possessed of himself, with showing his paternal affection to all. (Universal benevolence).

18. The ignorant are as the winds passing over running streams; they slightly touch the poisonous pleasures of their bodies, as the winds touch the rising waves, and are at last drowned in the depth of their sensuality.

19. But the wise man deals outwardly alike with all, with 544perfect coolness and stillness of his soul within himself; he seems outwardly to be engaged in business, but his inward mind is wholly disengaged from all worldly concerns whatsoever.

20. Ráma rejoined:—But how can a true sage of such nature, be distinguished from the many pretended ones and the ignorant also, who assume such a character falsely only to beguile others.

21. Many hypocrites rove about as horses, in the false garb of devotees, for the assurance of mankind in their devout devotedness to religion.

22. Vasishtha replied:—I say Ráma, that such a nature (or disposition), whether it is real or feigned, is the best and highest perfection of man; and know that, the learned in Vedic lore, have always this state as the model of perfection in their view.

23. Those who are dispassionate and unconcerned with acts, manage still to conduct their secular affairs and actions, like those that are actuated by their passions; and though they are averse to derision, yet they cannot help to deride at the ignorant from their kind heartedness towards them.

24. The visibles are all imprest in the mirror of their minds, as the shades of edifices are reflected in a reflector; they look upon them with full knowledge of their shadowiness, as they perceive the fallacy of their laying hold on a lump of gold in dream.

25. There is a coolness pervading their minds, which is altogether unknown to others; just as the sweet fragrance of the sandal wood, is unperceived by brutes at a distance.

26. They that know the knowable, and are equally pure in their minds, can only distinguish them from other people, as a snake only can trace the course of another snake.

27. They are the best of men, that hide their good qualities from others; for what man is there that will expose his most precious treasure in the market, along with the raw produce of his land? (i.e. The hidden virtues of a man, unlike the aroma of flowers, aught not to be laid open before the public).

54528. The reason of concealing the rare virtues, is to keep them unnoticed by the public; because the wise who are undesirous of reward or reputation, have nothing to reap or expect from the public.

29. Know Ráma, that solitude, poverty and disrespect and disregard of men, are more pleasing to the peaceful sage; than the most valuable gifts and honors from mankind.

30. The ineffable delight which attends on the wise man, from his conscious knowledge of the knowable; inexpressible in words, and invisible to others as to its knower also. (The secret joy of divine knowledge and grace, is felt unseen by the holy sage).

31. Let men know this qualification of mine, and honour me for it, is the wish of the egotist, and not of that are from their egoistic feelings.

32. It is possible even to the ignorant, to succeed to reap the results of their practices, such as their rising and moving about in the air (and upon the surface of water); by means of mantras, and the power of certain drugs, that are adapted to those ends.

33. He who can afford to take the pains to any particular end; succeeds to accomplish the same, whether he is a clever or ignorant man. (Success depends on action, and not on knowledge alone).

34. Tendencies to good or evil, are implanted in the bosom of man, as results of the acts of their past lives; and these come to display themselves into action at their proper time, as the sandal wood emits its latent fragrance in its season all around.

35. He who is prepossessed with the knowledge of his egoism, coupled with his desire for enjoyment of the visibles; he betakes himself to the practice of khechariyoga, whereby he ascends in the air, and reaps the reward of his action.

36. The wise man that has nothing to desire, knows such practices to be as false as empty air; and refrains from displaying his actions, which he knows at best but cast to the winds.

37. He derives no good from his observance of practical yoga, nor does he lose aught of his holiness by his non-observance of 546them; and neither has he any thing to gain from any body, nor lose a mite at the loss of any thing.

38. There is nothing in earth or heaven, nor among the gods nor any where else: which may be desirable to the magnanimous, and to one who has known the supreme soul.

39. What is this world to him, who knows it to be but a heap of dust, and deems it no better than a straw; What then is that thing in it, which may be desirable to him?

40. The silent sage whose soul is full of knowledge, and whose mind is quite at rest from its fondness for human society; remains content in the state as he is, and quite satisfied with whatever occurs to him.

41. He is always cool within himself and taciturn in his speech, and eternal truths form the ground work of his mind; which is as full and deep as the ocean, and whose thoughts are as bright as day light.

42. He is as full of cool composure in himself, as a gladsome lake reposing with its limpid waters; and he gladdens also all others about him, as the fair face of the fullmoon, cheers the spirits of all around.

43. The Mandara groves of Paradise, with their woodlands strewn over with the dust of their blossoms, do not delight the soul so much, as the wise sayings of pandits cheer the spirit.

44. The disc of the moon diffuses its cooling beams, and the vernal season scatters its fragrance around; but the pithy sayings of the wise and great, scatter their sound wisdom all about, which serve to ennoble and enrich all mankind.

45. The substance of their sayings, proves the erroneous conception of the world to be as false as a magic show; and inculcates the prudence of wearing out the worldly cares day by day.

46. The wise saint is as indifferent, to the suffering of heat and cold in his own person; as if they are disturbances in the bodies of other men. (Or that he feels the pain of others as his own).

47. In his virtues of compassion and charity, he resembles the fruitful tree, which yields its fruits, flowers, shed and all to 547common use, and subsists itself only upon the water, it sucks from the ground or receives from heaven.

48. It deals out to every body, whatever it is possest of in its own body; and it is by virtue of its unsparing munificence to all creatures, that it lifts its lofty head above them all (or stretches its roots in air).

49. One seated in the edifice of knowledge, has thaught of sorrow for himself; but pities the sorrows of others, as a man seated on a rock, takes pity for the miserable men, grovelling in the earth below.

50. The wise man is tossed about like a flower, by the rolling waves in the eventful ocean of this world; and is set at rest, no sooner he gets over it, and reaches the beach on the other side (i.e. his way to bliss).

51. He laughs with the calmness of his soul, at the same unvaried course of the world and its people; and smiles to think on the persistence of men, in their habitual error and folly. (The laughing philosopher).

52. I am amazed to see these aberrant men, wandering in the mazes of error; and fascinated by the false appearances of the phenomenal world, as if they are spell-bound to the visibles.

53. Seeing the eight kinds of prosperity to be of no real good, but rather as causes of evil to mankind, I have learnt to spurn them as straws; and though I am inclined to laugh at them, yet I forbear to do so from my habitual disposition of tolerance and forbearance.

54. I see some men abiding in mountain caves, and others resorting to holy places; some living at home amidst their families, and others travelling as pilgrims to distant shrines and countries.

55. Some roving about as vagrants and mendicants, and others remaining in their solitary hermitage; some continuing as silent sages, and observant of their vow of taciturnity; and others sitting absorbed in their meditation.

56. Some are famed for their learning, and others as students of law and divinity; some are as princes and others their priests, while there are some as ignorant as blocks and stones.

54857. Some are adepts in their exorcism of amulets and collyrium, and others skilled in their sorcery with the sword, rod and magic wand; some are practiced in their aerial journey, and others in other arts and some in nothing as the ignorant pariahs.

58. There are many that are employed in their ceremonial observances, and others that have abandoned their rituals altogether; some are as fanatics in their conduct, and others that indulge themselves in their peregrinations and vagrancy.

59. The soul (that you wanted to know), is not the body nor its senses or powers; it is neither the mind nor the mental faculties, nor the feelings and passions of the heart. The soul is the Intellect which is ever awake, and never sleeps nor dies.

60. It is never broken nor consumed, nor soiled nor dried up (by the death or burning of the body); it is immortal and omnipresent, ever steady and immovable, infinite and eternal.

61. The man who has his soul, thus awakened and enlightened in himself; is never contaminated by anything (pure or impure), in whatever state or wherever he may happen to remain.

62. Whether a man goes down to hell or ascends to heaven, or traverses through all the regions of air, or is crushed to death or pounded to dust; the immortal and undecaying Intellect which abides in him, never dies with his body, nor suffers any change with its change; but remains quite as quiet as the still air, which is the increate Deity itself.

Vasishtha continued:—The Intellect which is without its beginning and end, and is the ineffable light and its reflection, and shines for ever serenely bright, is never destroyed or extinguished in any wise.

2. Such is the Intellect and so too the soul, which is indestructible also; for it were destroyed at all at any time; there could neither be the recreation of the world (without a cause), nor any regeneration of human souls (if they were dead upon the death of the former generations of men).

3. All things are subject to change, and have many varieties under them; but not so the Intellect, which is ever immutable, and always perceived to be the same in all individuals.

4. We all feel the coldness of frost, the heat of fire, and sweetness of water; but we have no feeling of any kind regarding the Intellect, except that we know it to be quite clear and pellucid as open air. (The gloss explains it to mean, the unchangeableness of the soul in heat and cold, which affect the bodies and minds of all).

5. If the intellectual soul is destroyed at the destruction of the body, say then why should you lament at its loss, and not rejoice at its annihilation, which releases you from the pains of life?

6. The loss of the body entails no loss on the vacuous intellect; because the departed souls of mlechchha savages, are seen to hover over the cemetery by their living friends.

7. Should the soul be synchronous with the duration of the body, then say, why a death body does not move about, while it is yet unrotten and entire.

5508. If the seeing of apparitions, be an affection con-natural with the mind; then tell me why a man does not often see the sight of ghosts, except on the occasion of the demise of his friends.

9. Should it be a misconception connate with the mind, to see the apparitions of departed friends; tell me then, why don’t you see the ghosts of friends that are dead in a distant country, but of such only as die before your eyes.

10. Hence the Intellect, being the soul of all and everywhere, it is not confined in any place; but it is known to be of the same nature, as every one thinks it to be.

11. It is unconfined and unrestrained any where, and is of the nature of one compact consciousness that is felt by all, and is the cause of our knowledge of all things. (It is of what we have a notion only).

12. There can be no other, which may be supposed as the prime cause of all, at the beginning of creation. Should there be any other that is supposed to be as such, let the doctrinaires now declare it before me.

13. There was nothing uncreated before creation, nor was there anything created in the beginning; the duality that at present, presents itself in the form of the universe, is but a réchauffé or reflexion of the unity.

14. The phenomenal is no more than a reflexion or copy of the noumenal, and our impression of its being a visible something, is as erroneous as all other false sights, which are mistaken for the true reality. (These errors are the sights of silver in sands, of water in the sandy desert, and of airy castle in the northern skies).

15. It is a wonder of the almighty power, exhibited in the sphere of the Divine Intellect; it is the wakeful understanding that sees these visibles, as one sees the sights in his dream, but never in his ignorance of sound sleep.

16. The wakefulness and insensibility of the understanding, both amount to the same thing; because the difference of the visible world is only verbal and not real; since nothing that is visible to the eye, is substantial in its essential nature. 551(Hence the perception of the visibles, is alike to their non-perception of them).

17. Whatever was thought and said to be visibles by others, the same was the effect of their error and want of reason; and now if they are disproved by right season, where can you find the visibles any more.

18. Therefore employ your reasoning now, in the investigation of spiritual knowledge; because by your diligent and persevering inquiry in this respect, you will secure to yourself the success in both worlds. (So says the sruti: “By thy constant study of the subject, thou shalt see thy god”).

19. Inquiry into spiritual knowledge, will dispel thy ignorance; but thou wilt never be successful in it, without thy constant application to it.

20. Leaving aside all anxieties and their causes, and of every jot and moment of time in the observance of one’s sacred vows day by day, and the study of this sacred sástra with due attention, leads him to his welfare in both worlds.

21. Whether one is proficient or not in his spiritual knowledge, he may still improve in it, by his constant communication of it and discussion on the subject with his superiors.

22. Whoso requires this precious treasure (of his knowledge), he must exert for its attainment at the same ratio to be successful in it; or else he must leave off altogether, if he tires in his pursuit.

23. He must also keep himself from the perusal of heretical works, and betake himself to the study of orthodox sástras; and he will then gain his peace of mind by these, as one obtains victory in warfare (so should one fight for the salvation of his soul).

24. The course of the mind, like that of a stream of water, runs both in the channels of wisdom as well as folly; and forms a lake wherever it runs more rapidly, and settles as in its bed.

25. There was never a better sástra than this, nor is any such extant at present, nor is likely to be in vogue in future; 552there let the student cogitate well its doctrines, for the edification of his understanding.

26. Whoso heeds it well in himself, will find his mind instantly elevated with superior knowledge; and like the effect of a curse or blessing, which comes too late upon its recipient. (The efficacy of wisdom is instantaneous).

27. The knowledge of his sástra, is calculated to do you more good, than you can derive from the tender care of a father or mother; or the efficacy of your pious actions.

28. Know O holy man, this world is the prison-house of thy soul, and its cares as the cholic pain of thy mind; and there is no release nor redress from these, beside the knowledge of thy soul (which is a spark of the supreme).

29. It is the dark illusion of gross ignorance, that hath misled thee to the sense of thy egoism; and it is now by your reflection on the purport of the sástras only, that you can be freed from your deplorable state.

30. The world is a hollow cave, where the horrid hydra of illusion lies in ambush; and feeds on the empty air of vain enjoyments, that appear at first pleasant to taste, but prove to be as fleeting as empty air at last.

31. Pity it is that thy days are flying as fleet as the wind, and thou art insensible of their advents and exits; and while thou art employed in thy dealings, thou art fostering thy death in thy negligence.

32. We all live in death, and our lives are sustained by alternate hopes and fears; until the few days of our life-time terminate in death.

33. The approach of death, is attained with extreme pain and remorse; when the inner parts of the body are separated from the outer, which must be besmeared with dust as with the paste of sandal wood.

34. They are grossly ignorant and erroneous, who purchase their wealth and honour at the expense of their lives; and avoid to gain their permanent bliss by the precepts of the sástras.

55335. Why should he bear the feet of his vile enemies on his head (i.e. bow down his head before the meanly great); when he can attain his highest station of divine bliss in the sphere of his intellect, and with little or no pain.

36. Shun ye men, your vanity and ignorance; and to persist in the course of your baseness; and then you will gain by the knowledge of the great soul, your redemption from the tribulations of the world (which is a sea of troubles).

37. Seeing me in this manner, preach to you incessantly by day and night, for the sake of your good only; do you take my advice to turn your souls to the eternal soul, by forsaking the knowledge of your persons for that of your souls.

38. If you neglect to make a remedy to day, against the evil of your impending death; say O silly man, what amends can you make for the hour of death, when you are laid in your sickbed.

39. There is no other work except this, for the true knowledge of the soul; and this therefore must be acceptable to you in the same manner, as the sesame seeds are collected, for the sake of getting their oil.

40. This book will enlighten your spiritual knowledge, as a lamp lightens a dark room; drink it deep and it will enliven your soul, keep it by your side, and it will please you as a consort.

41. A man having his knowledge, but untaught in the sástras, has many things unintelligible and doubtful to him; which he will find to be clearly expounded to him in the sweetest language.

42. This is the best narrative among the principle works, which are taken in the light of sástras; it is easily intelligible and delightful, and has nothing new in it, except what is well known in spiritual philosophy.

43. Let a man peruse with delight, the many narrations that are contained herein; and he will undoubtedly find this book, the best of its kind (on account of elaborate disquisition in this abstruse subject).

44. Whatever has not yet appeared in full light, even to 554Pandits—learned in all the sástras; the same will be found to appear in this book, as they find gold to appear amidst the sand.

45. The authors of sástras are not to be despised at any time or in any country; but the reader should employ his reason and judgement, to dive into the true meaning of the writing.

46. Those who are led by their ignorance or envy, or actuated by their pride and delusion to disregard and slight this sástra out of their want of judgement; are to be regarded as killers of their souls, and unworthy of the company of the wise and good.

47. I know you well Ráma and this audience of mine, as well as your capacities to learn, and mine to instruct you; hence it is of my compassion to you that I like to teach you these things, as I am naturally communicative and kindly disposed to my hearers.

48. I find the development of your understandings, and therefore take interest to communicate my knowledge to you; and as I am a man and not a Gandharva or Rákshasa, I bear a fellow feeling towards you all.

49. I see you all as intelligent beings, and pure in your souls also; it is by virtue of these merits in you that I have become so friendly to you.

50. Now my friends, learn betimes to glean the truth of your unfondness for or indifference to every thing you see in this world (because there is nothing which is truly desirable herein).

51. Whoso neglects to remedy his diseases, of death and hell fire in this life; say what will he do to avert them when they are irremediable, and when he goes to a place, where no remedy is to be sought.

52. Until you feel a distaste for everything in this world, so long you cannot find any abatement of your desires in you. (It is better your desires to suppress, than toil and moil along to seek their redress).

53. There is no other means to elevate your soul, than depressing your desires to the lowest ebb (but the more you 555allow your wishes to grow and flow, the more you bind the soul and sink below).

54. If there be anything here, you think to be good for you; they serve at best but to bind your soul, and then disappear as the horn of a hare. (All tempting good, is as fleeting as a dream).

55. All earthly goods seem to be good, when they are untried and least understood; but the seeming something proves no such thing, or tends to your ruin at last. (All seeming good is positive evil).

56. All worldly existences prove to be nil, by the right reasoning (of Vedanta philosophy; though they are declared as real by Kapila, Kanada and others): but how they are real and what they are, whether self-existent or made, or permanent or temporary, (cannot rightly be known).

57. To say all worldly existences are self-existent, for having no prior cause assigned to them, nor being created in the beginning, would prove all that is existent, to be the increate and ever lasting supreme being itself.

58. There is no causality of sensible bodies, in the Being that is without and beyond the senses (the lord having no organ of sense, nor being perceptible by the senses as all material objects); nor is the mind the cause of sensible objects, (that have the six organs and are perceptible by them); the mind being but the sixth organ only.

59. How can the one unspeakable Lord, be the varied cause of these varieties of things, passing under various denominations. How can the reality have these unrealities in itself, and how can the Infinite Void, contain these finite solid bodies in it?

60. It is the nature of a plastic body to produce a thing of a plasmic from it, as the seeds of fruits bring forth their own kinds only; but how is it possible for an amorphous void, to produce solid forms from its vacuity, or the solid body to issue forth formless mind.

61. How can you expect to derive a solid seed from a void nothing, and therefore it is a deception to think the material 556world to be produced, from the immaterial and formless void of the vacuous intellect.

62. There are no conditions, of the creator and creation in the supreme being; these states are the fabrications of verbiage, and bespeak the ignorance of their inventors (in the true knowledge of the deity).

63. The want of co-ordinate causes (such as the material and formal causes), as co-existent with the prime and efficient cause; disproves the existence of an active agent and his act of creation; and this truth is evident even to boys.

64. The knowledge of God alone as the sole cause, and yet acknowledging the causality of the earth and other elements; is as absurd as to say that, the sun shines and yet it is dark. (i.e. As light and darkness cannot reign together, so the spirit and matter cannot abide simultaneously from all eternity, which would amount to the belief of a duality).

65. To say that the world is the aggregate of atoms, or an atomic formation, is as absurd as to call a bow made of the horn of a hare. (This is a refutation of the Buddhistic doctrine of the formation of the visible world, from the aggregation of eternal invisible atoms).

66. If the concourse and collocation of the dull, inert and insensible material atoms would form the world; it would of its own accord make a mountainous heap here, and a bottomless deep there in the air (and not a work of such design which must be the product of infinite Intelligence).

67. Again the particles of this earth, and the atoms of air and water, are flying every day in the forms of dust and humidity from house to house and from place to place, and why do they not yet form a new hill or lake any where again? (Why no new world again).

68. The invisible atoms are never to be seen, nor is it known whence, or where and how they are; nor is it possible to form an idea of the formless atoms, to unite together and form a solid mass. (Shapeless simples are indivisible and incohesive. Aphorism). And again it is impossible for the dull and insensible atoms to form any thing.

55769. The creation of the world, is never the work of an unintelligent cause; nor is this frail and unreal world ever the work of an intelligent maker also; because none but a fool makes any for nothing.

70. The insensible air which is composed of atoms, and has a motion of its own, is never actuated by reason or sense; nor is it possible to expect the particles of air to act wisely (as they prayed in their hymns to the maruta winds).

71. (What then are these if not composed of atoms?) We are all composed of intellectual soul, and all individuals are made of the vacuous selves; and they all appear to us, as the figures of persons appearing in our dream.

72. Therefore there is nothing that is created, nor is this world in existence; the whole is the clear void of the intellect, and shines with the glare of the Supreme soul in itself.

73. The vacuous universe rests completely in the vacuum of the Intellect, as force (or vibration), fluidity and vacuity, rest respectively in the wind, water and in the open air.

74. The form of the intellectual vacuum, is as that of the airy mind, which passes to distant climes in a moment (and yet holds its seat in the hollowness of the brain); or as that of consciousness which is seated in the hollow of the heart, and is yet conscious of every thing in itself.

75. Such is the vacuous nature of all things, as they are perceived in their intellectual forms only in intellect (which retains their vacuous ideas only on the hollow understanding); and so the world also is an empty idea only imprinted in the intellect.

76. It is the rotatory nature of the Intellect, which exhibits the picture of the universe on its surface; wherefore the world is identic and not otherwise than the vacuous nature of the intellect.

77. Therefore the world is the counter part of the intellectual sphere, and there is no difference in the vacuous nature, of either of them. They are both the same thing presenting but two aspects, as the wind and its undulations are one and the same thing.

55878. As a wise man going from one country to another, finds himself to be the same person wherever he goes; and though he sees all the varieties around him, yet he knows himself as the selfsame quiet and unvaried soul every where.

79. The wise man remains in the true nature of the elements, hence the elements never go off from the mind of the wise man.

80. The world is a vacuous sphere of reflections only, resembling a concave reflector; it is a formless void in its nature, and is unimpaired and indestructible in its essence.

81. There is nothing that is born or dies in it, nor any thing which having once come to being, is annihilated ever afterwards any where; it is not apart from the vacuum of the Intellect, and is as void as the inane world itself.

82. The world never is, nor was, nor shall ever be in existence; it is but a silent semblance of the representation passing in the intellectual vacuity of the supreme spirit.

83. The Divine Intellect alone shines forth in its glory, as the mind exhibits its images of cities &c. in dream; in the like manner our minds represent to us the image of world, as day dreams in our waking state.

84. There being no being in the beginning, how could there be the body of anything in existence; there was therefore no corporeality whatever except in the dream of the Divine mind.

85. The supreme Intellect dreams of its self-born (or uncreated) body at first; and we that have sprang from that body, have ever afterwards continued to see dream after dream to no end. (The world is a dream both in the mind of God and men).

86. It is impossible for us with all our efforts, to turn our minds to the great God; because they are not of the nature of the divine intellect, but born in us like carbuncles on the goitre, for our destruction only.

87. The god Brahmá is no real personage, but a fictitious name for Hiranyagarbha or totality of souls (समष्टि), but ever since he is regarded as a personal being, the world is considered as body and He the soul of all.

55988. But in truth all is unreal, from the highest empyrean to the lowest pit; and the world is as false and frail as a dream, which rises in vain before the mind, and vanishes in a minute.

89. The world rises in the vacuity of the Intellect, and sets therein as a dream; and when it does not rise in the enlightened intellect, it is as a disappearing from the waking mind, and flying before day light.

90. Although the world is known as false, yet it is perceived and appears as true to us; in the same manner as the false appearances in our dream, appear true to our consciousness at the time of dreaming.

91. As the formless dream presents many forms before the mind; so the formless world assumes many shapes before our sight: and all these are perceived in our consciousness, which is as minute in respect of the infinite space and sky, as an atom of dust is too small in regard to the Meru mountain. (i.e. the minim of our consciousness, contained in the breast, is an imperceptible particle only of sand in it).

92. But how can this consciousness, which is but another name of Brahma, be any what smaller than the sky (when it contains the skies in itself); and how can the vacuous world have any solid form, when it has no formal cause to form it so. (God being a formless being, could not give a form and figure to any thing, and which is therefore ideal only).

93. Where was there any matter or mould, where from this material world was moulded and formed (as we make our houses from the pre-existing mud and clay of the earth); whatever we see in the sphere of waking minds in the day light, is similar to the baseless dreams, which we see in the empty space of our sleeping minds, in the darkness of the night.

94. There is no difference between the waking and sleeping dreams, as there is none between the empty air and the sky; whatever is pictured in the sphere of the intellect, the same is represented as the aerial castle in the dream.

95. As the wind is the same with its undulation, so the rest 560and vibration of the spirit is both alike, as the air and vacuum is the one and same thing.

96. Hence it is the intellectual sphere only, which represents the picture of the world; the whole is a void and without any support, and splendour of the luminary of the intellect.

97. The whole universe is in a state of perfect rest and tranquility, and without its rising or setting; it is as a quiet and unwasting block of stone, and ever shining serenely bright.

98. Say therefore whence and what are these existent beings, and how comes this understanding of their existence; where is there a duality or unity, and how came these notions of egoism and distinct personalities.

99. Be ever prompt in your actions and dealings, with an utter indifference to everything, and unconcern about unity or duality; and preserve an even and cool disposition of your inward mind. Remain in the state of nirvána, with your extinguished passions and feelings, and free from disease and anxiety. Be aloof from the visibles, and remain in the manner of a pure Intelligence only.

100. This chapter is a lecture on entity and non-entity; and establishment of the spirituality of the universe.

Vasishtha continued:—The sky is the receptacle of sound, and the air is perceptible to the feeling; their friction produces the heat, and the subsidence or removal of heat, causes the cold and its medium of water.^[4]

2. The earth is the union of these, and in this way do they combine to form the world, appearing as a dream unto us, or else how is it possible for a solid body, to issue forth from the formless vacuum.

3. If this progression of productions, would lead us too far beyond our comprehension; but it being so in the beginning, it brings no blemish in the pure nature of the vacuous spirit, (for its gradual productions of air, heat, water &c.).

4. Divine Intelligence also is a pure entity, which is manifest in the selfsame spirit; the same is said to be the world, and this most certain truth of truths. (Because Omniscience includes in it the knowledge of all things; which is the true meaning of the text [Sanskrit: sarvam khalvidam brahma] all this verily Brahma or full of the intelligence of God).

5. There are no material things, nor the five elements of matter any where; all these are mere unrealities, and yet they are perceived by us, like the false appearance in our dream.

6. As a city and its various sights, appear very clear to the mind in our sleeping dreams; so it is very pleasant to see the dream like world, shining so brightly before our sight in our waking hours.

5627. I am of the nature of my vacuous intellect, and so is this world of the same nature also; and thus I find myself and this world, to be of the same nature, as a dull and insensible stone.

8. Hence the world appears as a shining jewel, both at its first creation, as well as in all its kalpánta or subsequent formations (because it shines always with the effulgence of the Divine Intellect).

9. Whether the body be something or nothing in its essence, its want of pain and happiness of the mind, is the form of its state of moksha or liberation; and its rest with a peaceful mind and pure nature, is reckoned its highest state of bliss.

Vasishtha continued:—The Intellect conceives the form of the world, of its own intrinsic nature; and fancies itself in that very form, as it were in a dream. (The subjective Intellect, sees itself in the form of the objective world).

2. It feigns itself as asleep while it is waking, and views the world either as a solid stone, or as a void as the empty air.

3. The world is compared to a dream, exhibiting a country embellished with a great many cities; and as is no reality in the objects of dream, so there is no actuality in any thing appearing in this world.

4. All the three worlds are as unreal, as the various sights in a dream; and they are but day dreams to us even when we are awake. (The Intelligent dream by day light, as the ignorant do in the shade of night).

5. Whether in waking or sleeping, there is nothing named as the world (or the turning sphere); it is but the empty void, and at best but an air-drawn picture in the hollow of the Intellects.

6. It is a wondrous display of the Intellect in its own hollowness, like the array of hills and mountains in the midway firmament; the sense of the world is as a waking dream in the minds of the wise.

7. This world is nothing in its substance, nor is it any thing of the form of Intellect; it is but a reflexion of the Intellect, and the vacuity of the intellectual world, is but an empty nothing.

8. The triple world is only a reflexion, and like the sight of something in dream, it is but an airy nothing; it is the 564empty air which becomes thus (diversified), and is entirely bodiless, though seeming to be embodied in our waking state.

9. It is inventive imagination of men, that is ever busy even in the hours of sleep and dreaming; and presents to us with many creations that were never created, and many unrealities appearing as real ones.

10. The universe appears as an extensive substantiality, implanted in the bosom of endless vacuity; but this huge body, with all its mountains and cities, is in reality no other than the original vacuum.

11. The howling of the sea, and clattering of clouds on mountains, though they are so very tremendous to the waking; are yet unheard by the sound sleeper by his side. (So the pomp of the world, is unseen by the blind).

12. As a widow dreams her bringing forth a son in her sleep, and as a man thinks to be ever living, by forgetfulness of his past death, and being reborn again; so are men unmindful of their real state.

13. The real is taken for the unreal and unreal for the real; as the sleeping man forgets his bed room, and thinks himself else where; so every thing turns to be otherwise, as the day turns to night and the night changes to day.

14. The unreal soon succeeds the real, as night—the want of light succeeds the light of the day; and the impossible also becomes possible, as when a living person sees his death, or thinks himself as dead in his sleep.

15. The impossible becomes possible, as the supposition of the world in the empty void; and the darkness appears as light, as the night time seems to be daylight to the sleeping and dreaming man at night.

16. The daylight becomes the darkness of night, to one who sleeps and dreams in the daytime (as it is to owls and bats and so to cats and rats); the solid ground seems to be hollow, to one who dreams of his being cast into a pit.

17. As the world appears to be a nullity in our sleep at night, and so it is reality even in our waking state, and there 565is no doubt of it. (It is doubtful that the world exists, but no doubt in its inexistence).

18. As the two suns (of yesterday and today), are the one and same with one another, and as two men are of the same kind; so it is doubtless that the waking and sleeping states are alike to another.

19. Ráma rejoined:—That of course cannot be admissible and reliable as true, which is liable to objection and exception; the sight of a dream is but momentary and falsified upon our waking; wherefore it cannot be alike to the waking state.

20. Vasishtha replied:—The disappearance of the dreamed objects upon waking, does not prove their falsity, nor make any difference between the two states of dreaming and waking; because the objects which one sees in his dream, are like those that a traveller sees in foreign country, which are lost upon his return to his own country, and the sights of this are soon lost upon his death. Hence both are true for the time being, and both proved equally false and fleeting at last.

21. A man being dead, he is separated from his friends, as from those he sees in his dream; and then the living is said to be awakened, as when a sleeper awakes from his slumber.

22. After seeing the delusions of the states of happiness and misery, and witnessing the rotations of days and nights, and feeling many changes, the living soul at last departs from this world of dreams.

23. After the long sleep of life, there comes at last an end of it at last; when the human soul becomes assured of the untruth of this world, and that the past was a mere dream.

24. As the dreamer perceives his death in the land of his dream, so the waking man sees his waking dream of this world, where he meets with his death, in order to be reborn in it and to dream again.

25. The waking beholder of the world, finds himself to die in the same manner in his living world; where he is doomed to be reborn, in order to see the same scenes and to die again.

26. He who finds himself to die in the living world in his 566waking state, comes to revisit this earth, in order to see the same dreams, which he believed to be true in his former births. (Hence the sleeping and waking dreams, that view the same things over again, are both alike).

27. It is the ignorant only, that believe their waking sights as true; while it is the firm conviction of the intelligent, that all these appearances are but day dreams at best.

28. Taking the dreaming state for waking, and the waking one for dreaming, are but verbal distinctions implying the same thing; as life and death are meaningless words for the two states of the soul, which never born nor died.

29. He who views his life and death in the light of a dream, is said to be truly waking; but the living soul that considers itself as waking and dying, is quite the contrary of it.

30. Whoso dwells upon one dream after another, or wakes to see a waking dream; is as one who wakes after his death, and finds his waking also to be a dream. (All states of sleeping and waking, and of living and dying are mere dreams).

31. Our waking and sleeping, are both as events of history to us; and are comparable to the past and present histories of nations. (Both being equally fleeting and fluctuating).

32. The dream-sleep seems as waking, and the waking dream is no other than sleeping; they are both in fact but unrealities, and the mere réchauffé or reflexions of the intellectual sky.

33. We find the moving and unmoving beings on earth, and creatures unnumbered all around us; but what do they all prove to be at last, than the representations of the eternal ideas in the Divine Intellect.

34. As we can have no idea of a pot, without that of the clay which it is made of; so we can have no conception of the blocks of mould and stone, unless they were represented to our minds, from their prints in Divine Intellect.

35. All these various things, which appear unto us both in our waking as well as dreaming states; are no other than the ideas of blocks, which are represented in our dreams from their archetypes in the Intellect.

56736. Now say O Intelligent Ráma, what else must this Intellect be, than that infinite and vacuous essence which acts in us, both in our dreaming and waking states.

37. Know this Intellect to be the great Brahmá, who is everything in the world, as if it were in the divided forms of his essence; and who is yet of the figure of the whole world, as if he were the undivided whole himself. (i.e. He is all and everything collectively and individually).

38. As the earthen pot is not conceivable, without its formal substance of the earth; so the intellectual Brahmá is inconceivable, without his essence of the Intellect.

39. Again as a stone-made jar is beyond our conception, save by the idea of its stony substance; so the spiritual God is beyond our comprehension, besides our idea of the spirit.

40. As the water is a liquid substance, which cannot be conceived without its fluidity; so is Brahmá conceived as composed of his chit or Intellect only, without which we can have no conception of him.

41. So also we have the conception of fire by means of its heat, without which we have no concept of it; such too is our idea of God that he is the Intellect, and beside this we can form no idea of him.

42. We know the wind by its oscillation only, and by no other means whatsoever; so is God thought as the Intellect or Intelligence itself; beside which we can have no notion of him.

43. There is nothing, that can be conceived without its property; as we can never conceive vacuum to be without its vacuity, nor have any conception of the earth without its solidity.

44. All things are composed of the vacuous Intellect, as the pot or painting appearing in the mind, is composed of the essence of the intellect only; and so the hills &c., appearing in dream, are representation of the Intellect alone. (All the material world is composed of matter, so is the intellectual world made of intellect only).

56845. As we are conscious of the aerial sights of the hills and towns, presented to our minds in the dream; so we know all things in our conscious in our waking state also; so there is a quiet calm vacuity only both in our sleep and waking, wherein our intellect alone is ever busy to show itself in endless shapes before us.